The battle between creationists and Darwinians sometimes appears to be irresolvable. Pick science or religion – you can’t have both.
“Not so fast,” says philosopher Lenn E. Goodman. In his new book Creation and Evolution, Goodman argues that religion and the life sciences are in truth deeply complementary.
“Any kind of fundamentalism tends to be a misleading point of view,” said Goodman, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Humanities and professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt. “Thinking that way can obscure the real biblical message and also distort the deepest insights and richest findings of Darwinian science.”
In Creation and Evolution, Goodman meticulously lays out the evidence for natural selection, comparing and contrasting the creation story in Genesis. He traces the historical and conceptual backgrounds of evolution controversies and shows how the two perspectives can enrich one another.
“Many of us feel that the time is long past due for declaring a truce in the war between evolution and theism,” said Nicholas Rescher, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. “But making a cogent and sensible case for this conviction is not as easy as it sounds, so we cannot but welcome the decency and elegance which Goodman’s wise and widely informed deliberations come to our aid.”
Creation and Evolution was published in February by Routledge. For review copies, go to http://www.routledgereligion.com/info/reviewcopy.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu