Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith

by Philip Kitcher

Book Overview

Charles Darwin has been at the center of white-hot public debate for more than a century. In Living With Darwin, Philip Kitcher stokes the flames swirling around Darwin's theory, sifting through the scientific evidence for evolution, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design, and revealing why evolution has been the object of such vehement attack. Kitcher first provides valuable perspective on the present controversy, describing the many puzzles that...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195314441
• ISBN13: 9780195314441
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.5" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

More humane and sensitive than Dawkins

This little book is a devastating critique of the Intelligent Design as a religion in disguise. Prof. Kitcher continues the project begun back in the 1980a in his ABUSING SCIENCE, which demolished the old-fashioned creationism (i.e., the anti-Darwinism of the pre-ID days). And yet, in the final chapter of LIVING WITH DARWIN, "The Mess of Pottage", Kitcher is greatly sensitive and understanding of the motivations of religious believers to oppose Darwinism. I should like to say a bit more about the idas expressed in this chapter, since it is here where I find an important difference between Kitcher and other well-known critics of creationism, such as Prof. Dawkins. Prof. Kitcher offers a sort of sociological hypothesis to explain why biblical literalism and Christian fundamentalism thrive in the United States, while they are negligible anywhere else in the developed world. According to Kitcher, the church is virtually the only place of communal support in America, which is, at the same time, a country where competition and alienation are particularly fierce. Ordinary people who find in the church the last place of support and comfort see Darwin as a symbol of all that threatens the institution that sustains them in the fierce social environment. Now, Kitcher is in a basic agreement with Dawkins about the illusionary nature of religion. Unlike Dawkins, however, Kitcher does not believe that people hold onto religion because of mere stupidity. Although he doesn't develop this point in a great detail, I suppose that Kitcher implies that only a radical social change could alter the conditions of life of ordinary Americans in such a way that they would no longer need the illusion of a religion.

Finding the true path

It's a bit depressing, seeing a man of global outlook having to produce a book of such limited audience. Kitcher's philosophical study is an excellent summation of the false ideas forwarded by anti-Darwin forces in the US. His approach is a needed one, that "creationists" of various stripes there must be addressed in rational terms, and on their own ground. He accomplishes the task with extraordinary skill and reserve. It's a badly-needed book, but it's a pity is that this is so. It's to be hoped Kitcher's well-reasoned techniques applied here will reach a significant portion of that targeted readership. His approach is to categorise the themes of creationist writers as regards the value of the "science" they purport to espouse. He puts creationists in three basic forms: "Genesis" - the biblical "literalists"; "novelty" - special acts of creation by some supernatural interference; and the "anti-selectionists" - composed of the newer "Intelligent Design" advocates. "Anti-selectionism" has found a niche by contesting the concept of the Tree of Life, the graphic representation of gradual change in organisms over time to produce new forms. It isn't evolution itself these writers contest, but the details not readily explained by what we know now. Aimless mutations aren't enough to explain the complexity of some elements in certain organisms, they argue. Some undetectable "force" must be involved. The first two forms are adhered to by sincere, if dogmatic followers. The third is one that must be considered on the evidence under study. That consideration must adhere to the rules of scientific investigation to be valid. Kitcher understands that the challenge of the anti-selectionists isn't based on scientific, but on cultural, values. He recognises that the real agenda of "Intelligent Design" is to give religious people a way to grasp Darwin's concept within a framework of supernatural forces. They have been forced to concede that "young-Earth" biblical creation is untenable. They also recognise that "special creations" aren't supported by the fossil or genetic record. The only way to allow their deity a means of keeping its hand in is to give some tampering power. Bacterial flagella and some internal functions of the body argue against Darwin's "descent with modification". Building up certain proteins to perform the tasks they do today cannot be sustained, they contend. Kitcher responds by noting that while the "anti-selectionists" can make this arguement due to lack of hard fossil evidence for how these functions evolved, neither do the Darwin-detractors offer any evidence for divine tampering to establish them. The author's classifications may be novel, but the issues involved have been presented often. What makes this book important and necessary is Kitcher's resistance to sinking into wearying invective. His prose is bright and conversational, his lining out of evidence firmly dispassionate and his conclusions irrefutabl

I believe I can live with Darwin

Ever since the Origin of Species was published in 1859, Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection has been viewed as dangerous to Christian faith. This is especially true for adherents of biblical literalism who view it as a threat and have taken various steps to assuage its effects on the faithful. The most recent of which comes under the title "Intelligent Design." [ID] In his book, Living with Darwin, philosopher of science Philip Kitcher sets out to attack claims made by proponents of Intelligent Design by showing their weakness as a "scientific" as well as a "religious" hypothesis." And ultimately demonstrating why a Darwinian orthodox explanation is still the best option available. In chapter one, "Disinterring Darwin," Kitcher refers to [ID] as "dead science" a doctrine that "once had its day in scientific inquiry and discussion but has rightly been discarded" (8). This means that at some point in the past it was seriously considered a workable scientific hypothesis but for good reasons it was abandoned and left for dead, to be replaced by a hypothesis that does a better job of explaining the natural world. But Kitcher recognizes that this is not the last word for proponents of [ID], or as he likes to call them "resurrection men." The [ID] proponents have other tricks up their sleeve as Kitcher demonstrates. For one, there isn't just one strand of intelligent design that evolutionists have to deal with. Kitcher concentrates on a total of three anti-evolution approaches: "Genesis creationism," "novelty creationism," and "anti-selctionism" respectively. This makes it a little more difficult for proponents of evolution to refer to [ID] as non-science (nonsense) because aspects of these other hypothesis could easily meet the requirements of a science. Instead, Kitcher seriously considers the [ID] program by playing their game and addressing their objections to Darwinian orthodoxy. Secondly, Kitcher recognizes a two-part distinction between a "negative thesis' and a "positive thesis" in [ID]. The negative thesis says that life as a whole is too complex to have come about the way the theory of natural selection explains it. On the other hand, the positive thesis says that there is an alternative causal agency to natural selection which is thought to be intelligent. Now it shouldn't automatically be assumed that this "intelligence" is the supernatural creator God of the Bible. Kitcher will address this subject in the final chapter (chapter 5). Suffice it to say that merely labeling something "intelligent" doesn't get one closer to the supernaturalism one wishes to prove. In fact, it may just make that understanding of a designer more problematic when one actually considers what kind of world actually exists. In chapter two Kitcher addresses genesis creationism and ultimately says "Good-bye to Genesis" and any compatibility of a literal interpretation of the flood story with the fossil record in the layers of rocks. The i

I.D. is no match for evolution science and faith must be struggled with.

I am a thoroughly faithful 21st Century Christian with no problem with evolution or science in general. My faith is life long and I let go of any of the supernatural problems with religion over many years. This book interested me because the author endeavored to address "faith" as an integral part of the arguments over Darwinian theory. As well, the book is valuable because it is a great primer on the theory of evolution and natural selection on the one hand and a fine and sympathetic, but devastating, critique of the "non-religious" alternative of Intelligent design. All this written by a self described "secular humanist." Kitcher, as such, is remarkably empathetic toward the faithful who are threatened by Darwinian theory. And finally, he asks the faithful a key question as to just what would differentiate them from secular humanism if they gave up supernaturalism as essential to that faith. I am in this category and am satisfied that my understanding of life as essentially sacred and living as a sacramental act is a difference between Kitcher and myself that makes a difference. This is a thoughtful little book well worth reading if any of the issues it addresses bother you or which you are curious about.

Short and Sweet

I just finished this book last evening. It is an easy read being a synoptic treatment of the evidence supporting darwinism and the modern intelligent design criticisms. Kitcher takes us through the historical discoveries that undermined the biblical creation stories. For example, the earth is clearly much older than the bible indicates. There is no evidence for a worldwide Noah's flood. The evidence was so overwhelming that christian scholars, such as the Reverend Adam Sedgewick whom Kitcher quotes, had to admit that the biblical view was wrong. Biblical literalism was untenable after this point. Kitcher takes ID seriously but ultimately finds that it is just the argument from design. ID has much to say against natural selection, but nothing positive to say about an alternative process. It is dead science having been buried long ago. I was suprised by some other reviewers mentioning the 'Jesus Seminar'. Kitcher does not base anything on this group. In fact, they are not even in the index. They are only mentioned in two places. One, were he quotes their opinion on the effect of Mark's Ecce Homo scene where Pilate presents jesus to the mob. Let me quote it. "That scene, although the product of Mark's vivid imagination, has wrought untold and untellable tragedy in the history of the relation of Christians to Jews. There is no black deep enough to symbolize the black mark this fiction has etched in Christian history."( page 100 ). He quotes this where he is discussing the 'sitz im leben' of the gospels' composition. The other place is when Kitcher refers back to this quote on page 162. Kitcher makes no use of them for anything. He relies instead on older scholars such as Wellhausen and others who did the early work on figuring out how the bible was written. In fact, by 19th and early 20th century standards of biblical criticism, the Jesus Seminar is a very conservative group. A critical scholar like Joachim Jeremias ( not mentioned by Kitcher ) would say that the 'abba' saying by jesus is the only thing we can trace back to jesus with any confidence. Everything else he said or taught can be found in non-biblical sources. Of course, as the old saying goes, you can't argue someone out of something that they weren't argued into. Creationists don't believe what they do for intellectual reasons but for emotional reasons. Kitcher ends up discussing what it might mean to be a christian if you do take the book seriously. It is what I call a 'post-critical naivete'. One knows that the stories are just that. In the community of fellow christians, one finds support, hope and a sense of transcendence. If you want a short book dealing with these issues then this is your book. There is no lack of books on this topic, but for those wanting to dig deeper into the critical scholarship of the bible you might want to consider some of the following books. _Who Wrote the Bible_, Richard Friedman _The New Testament: The History of the Investigation of Its Prob