DiscoverThe Darwin 2009 Festival - Day 3John Hedley Brooke, Human nature and belief, Wed 8 July
John Hedley Brooke, Human nature and belief, Wed 8 July

John Hedley Brooke, Human nature and belief, Wed 8 July

Update: 2009-10-15
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Summary: On no area of human concern has Darwin's impact been as keenly felt as on matters of religion. Here I shall not dwell on popular constructions of conflict between 'creation' and 'evolution', which are often simplistic, but rather consider reasons why religious affiliation and practice continue to survive, despite the intellectual challenge of Darwinism. I shall suggest that through affirmative, creative responses to Darwin's ideas, as well as resistance to them, religious thinkers have sustained their positions. Two thinkers, deeply affected by Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley and William James, provide additional insights into the survival of a religious sensibility. Despite his denunciation of dogmatic theology, Huxley regarded the notional antagonism between science and religion as a contrivance on the part of short-sighted religious people and equally myopic scientists. More dramatically, James contended that in a Darwinian universe it is the religious who are best fitted to survive: 'every sort of energy and endurance, of courage and capacity for handling life's evils, is set free in those who have religious faith'. Do our attempts to give a naturalistic evolutionary account of the origins of religion result in making religion so 'natural' that it inexorably survives?
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John Hedley Brooke, Human nature and belief, Wed 8 July

John Hedley Brooke, Human nature and belief, Wed 8 July

John Hedley Brooke