The Death of Adam: Evolution and Its Impact on Western Thought

By John C. Greene

Book Overview

With the reissue of this well-known book, John Greene, in a new Preface, puts into present-day perspectives the concepts of evolution and static creationism. Writing as a historian, not as a biologist, theologian, or philosopher, John Greene describes analytically and synthetically the tremendous revolution in human thought that took place in the two centuries separating Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Greene connects the progress in biology with similar progress in astronomy, geology, paleontology, and anthropology and demonstrates the impact of the newly born mechanical view of nature on these sciences. Professor Greene discusses Darwin's own ideas on science, religion, race, progress, economic competition, etc., in an analysis notable for originality and depth and breadth of approach. The analysis reveals the spiritual anxiety caused by the gradual crumbling of static creationism and describes the rise of a gospel of secular progress as a substitute faith for humans to live by.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000LHOTI6
• ISBN13: 9780813803906
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Iowa State Pr
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Good for historical perspective on the creation-evolution wars

This book comprehensively surveys the development of evolutionary ideas from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The book is sympathetic to the resistance these deeply pious thinkers felt to the implications of the most natural interpretations of what the data that they were collecting. The book is scholarly and not for those seeking a sound-bite.