Private doubt, public dilemma: religion and science since Jefferson and Darwin PDF
Preview Private doubt, public dilemma: religion and science since Jefferson and Darwin
THE TERRY LECTURES Private Doubt, Public Dilemma Other Volumes in the Terry Lectures Series Available from Yale University Press The Courage to Be Paul Tillich Psychoanalysis and Religion Erich Fromm Becoming Gordon W. Allport A Common Faith John Dewey Education at the Crossroads Jacques Maritain Psychology and Religion Carl G. Jung Freud and Philosophy Paul Ricoeur Freud and the Problem of God Hans Küng Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution Walter J. Gehring Belief in God in an Age of Science John Polkinghorne Israelis and the Jewish Tradition David Hartman The Empirical Stance Bas C. van Fraassen One World: The Ethics of Globalization Peter Singer Exorcism and Enlightenment H. C. Erik Midelfort Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate Terry Eagleton Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition Mary Douglas The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue? Edited by Harold W. Attridge Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion Barbara Herrnstein Smith Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self Marilynne Robinson Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History Ahmad Dallal The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism Philip Kitcher Private Doubt, Public Dilemma Religion and Science since Jefferson and Darwin KEITH THOMSON New Haven and London Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of William McKean Brown. Copyright © 2015 by Keith Thomson. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. office) or sales@yaleup .co.uk (U.K. office). Set in Janson Roman type by Tseng Information Systems. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomson, Keith Stewart. Private doubt, public dilemma : religion and science since Jefferson and Darwin / Keith Thomson. pages cm. — (The Terry lectures series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-300-20367-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Religion and science. 2. Darwin, Charles, 1809–1882. 3. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743–1826. I. Title. BL240.3.T485 2015 201′.65—dc23 2014040042 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation Lectures on Religion in the Light of Science and Philosophy The deed of gift declares that “the object of this founda- tion is not the promotion of scientific investigation and dis- covery, but rather the assimilation and interpretation of that which has been or shall be hereafter discovered, and its application to human welfare, especially by the building of the truths of science and philosophy into the structure of a broadened and purified religion. The founder believes that such a religion will greatly stimulate intelligent effort for the improvement of human conditions and the advancement of the race in strength and excellence of character. To this end it is desired that a series of lectures be given by men emi- nent in their respective departments, on ethics, the history of civilization and religion, biblical research, all sciences and branches of knowledge which have an important bearing on the subject, all the great laws of nature, especially of evolu- tion . . . also such interpretations of literature and sociology as are in accord with the spirit of this foundation, to the end that the Christian spirit may be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge and that mankind may be helped to attain its highest possible welfare and happiness upon this earth.” The present work constitutes the latest volume pub- lished on this foundation. Brethren, scholars, men of science, yours is a priestly calling. ANdrew P. PeABOdy , The Connection between Science and Religion: An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, August 28, 1845 Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii ONe. The Long-Standing Problem 1 TwO. Religion and Science 13 Three. Mr. Jefferson’s Dilemma 25 fOur. Ancient of Days 43 fIve. Mr. Darwin’s Religion 65 SIx. The Devil and Mr. Darwin 95 SeveN. Debates and Academics 107 eIghT . Clerics and Apes 125 NINe. The Decline of Authority 137 TeN. A Way Forward? 153 APPeNdI x. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce’s Oxford Address 169 Notes 189 Index 201 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface Charles Darwin was never just a scientist; he was fascinated by metaphysics and tormented about religion. During the tense period in 1838 just before the final pieces of his theory of evolution by natural selection fell into place, just as he was about to propose to Emma Wedgwood, and just before his health failed miserably under the pressure of it all, he had been reading Wordsworth. Judging by entries that he made in his M Notebook, he had been thinking about the branch of the- ology called natural theology, according to which the beauty, order, and purposiveness of life on earth can be seen as proof of God’s existence. Intrigued by his own aesthetic responses to nature, he made a set of telegraphic notes on the problem of assessing beauty, particularly the beauty of scenery, including this reference: “[See] Wordsworth about science being suffi- ciently habitual to become poetical.”1 There is a second refer- ence to Wordsworth in a notebook from the end of 1856: “At ix
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