Abstract
As was explained in the preceding chapter, it is not really germane to the argument about the existence of God whether or not the hypothesis of neo-Darwinism corresponds to the truth or not. The proponents of this view assert that the only way in which the evolution of life took place was through the accumulation of micromutations in the genotype, each leading to minute differences in the phenotype, and the natural selection of those individual members of the species most fitted to survive. In a consideration of the number of apparent ‘coincidences’ which were necessary for life to evolve on this planet, ‘coincidences’ both in the evolution of the cosmos and the precise value of the ‘constants’ in the natural world, I discussed Neo-Darwinism in the previous chapter (p. 92), suggesting that, if it were true, it could still be the vehicle for carrying out God’s purpose in the world.
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Notes
H. Montefiore, The Probability of God (London, 1988).
C. Darwin, The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London, 1885, 6th edn), p. 480.
S. Løvtrup, Darwinism (London, 1987), p. 416.
R. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (London, 1986), p. 317.
‘The Origins of Mutants’ by J. Cairns, J. Overbaugh, S. Miller, Nature (8 September 1988) p. 145.
‘Retrospect of the Criticisms of the Theory of Natural Selection’ by R. A. Fisher, Evolution as a Process, ed. J. Huxley, A.C. Hardy, E.P. Ford (London, 1958), p. 94.
St G. Mivart, On the Genesis of Species (London, 1871), p. 275.
C. Sherrington, Man on his Nature (Cambridge, 1940), p. 111.
J.C. Smuts, Evolution and Holism (London, 1936), p. 18.
P.C.W. Davies, The Cosmic Blueprint (London, 1987), p. 148,
cites W.L. Elasser, Atom and Organism (Princeton, 1966) p. 45
and E.P. Wigner, The Logic of Personal Knowledge (London, 1974), p. 231.
P.C.W. Davies cites ‘Some remarks on the Notion of Order’ by D. Bohm in Towards a Theoretical Biology, ed. C.H. Waddington (Edinburgh, 1969), vol 2, p. 18.
A. Peacocke, An Introduction to the Physical Chemistry of Biological Organisation (Oxford, 1983), p. 278.
R. Passingham in New Scientist (4 November 1982) p. 288.
Sperry wrote: ‘Consciousness does do things and is highly functional as an important component of the causal sequence in high level reactions’ (cited by Thorpe, Purpose in a World of Chance, p. 94). R. Cotterill, No Ghost in the Machine (London, 1989) strongly disputes this.
Cf. ‘Neanderthals weren’t so dumb after all’ by S. Bunney, New Scientist (I July 1989) p. 43.
D. Morris, The Naked Ape (London, 1967), p. 80.
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© 1990 Hugh Montefiore
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Montefiore, H. (1990). The Origin of Species. In: Reclaiming the High Ground. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20992-7_7
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