Darwin and Religion: Correcting the Caricatures

Much has been written on the subject of Darwinism and religion, but rather less on the development of Darwin’s own thinking on religious matters and how it changed over time. What were his religious, or anti-religious, beliefs? Did he believe that his theory of evolution by natural selection was incompatible with belief in a Creator? Was it his revolutionary science that turned him into an agnostic? If not, what other considerations affected his judgment? The aim of this paper is to illuminate these questions and, in so doing, to correct some popular caricatures that frequently appear when the two words ‘science’ and ‘religion’ are juxtaposed. Darwin himself reflected deeply on the theological problem of suffering and justified his naturalism on the ground that it made the deity less directly responsible for the more repulsive features of creation. The deism that he espoused at the time of writing his Origin of Species also left its mark in his conviction that it would be demeaning to the deity to suggest that its purposes could not be achieved through natural causes. The diversity of the religious responses also corrects a common misperception that there was almost unanimous hostility from religious interests.     

Darwin’s Difficulties and Students’ Struggles with Trait Loss: Cognitive-Historical Parallelisms in Evolutionary Explanation

Although historical changes in scientific ideas sometimes display striking similarities with students’ conceptual progressions, some scholars have cautioned that such similarities lack meaningful commonalities. In the history of evolution, while Darwin and his contemporaries often used natural selection to explain evolutionary trait gain or increase, they struggled to use it to convincingly account for cases of trait loss or decrease. This study examines Darwin’s evolutionary writings about trait gain and loss in the Origin of Species (On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. D. Appleton, New York, 1859) and compares them to written evolutionary explanations for trait gain and loss in a large (n > 500), cross-cultural and cross-sectional sample (novices and experts from the USA and Korea). Findings indicate that significantly more students and experts applied natural selection to cases of trait gain, but like Darwin and his contemporaries, they more often applied ‘use and disuse’ and ‘inheritance of acquired characteristics’ to episodes of trait loss. Although the parallelism between Darwin’s difficulties and students’ struggles with trait loss are striking, significant differences also characterize explanatory model structure. Overall, however, students and scientists struggles to explain trait loss—which is a very common phenomenon in the history of life—appear to transcend time, place, and level of biological expertise. The significance of these findings for evolution education are discussed; in particular, the situated nature of biological reasoning, and the important role that the history of science can play in understanding cognitive constraints on science learning.     

达尔文：诞辰两百周年纪念

英国自然学家查尔斯·罗伯特·达尔文FRS（1809年2月12日-1882年4月19日）发现并公布了令人信服的证据,证明所有的生命物种都是由共同的祖先长期进化而来的,这个过程被他称为“自然选择”。进化论在达尔文生前就被科学界大多数领域以及许多普通大众所接受,     

Making a Theist out of Darwin: Asa Gray’s Post-Darwinian Natural Theology

In March of 1860 the eminent Harvard Botanist and orthodox Christian Asa Gray began promoting the Origin of Species in hopes of securing a fair examination of Darwin??s evolutionary theory among theistic naturalists. To this end, Gray sought to demonstrate that Darwin had not written atheistically and that his theory of evolution by natural selection had not presented any new scientific or theological difficulties for traditional Christian belief. From his personal correspondence with the author of the Origin, Gray well knew that Darwin did not affirm God??s ??particular?? design of nature but conceded to the possibility that evolution proceeded according to ??designed laws.?? From this concession, Gray attempted to develop a post-Darwinian natural theology which encouraged theistic naturalists to view God??s design of nature through the evolutionary process in a manner similar to the way in which they viewed God??s Providential interaction with human history. Indeed, securing a fair reading of the Origin was not Gray??s sole aim as a promoter of Darwinian ideas. In Darwin??s theory of natural selection, Gray believed he had discovered the means by which a more robust natural theological conception of the living and evolving natural world could be developed. In this paper I outline Gray??s efforts to produce and popularize a theistic interpretation of Darwinian theory in order to correct various misconceptions concerning Gray??s natural theological views and their role in the Darwinian Revolution.     

Getting to Darwin: Obstacles to Accepting Evolution by Natural Selection

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to modern biology, but is resisted by many people. This paper discusses the major psychological obstacles to accepting Darwin’s theory. Cognitive obstacles to adopting evolution by natural selection include conceptual difficulties, methodological issues, and coherence problems that derive from the intuitiveness of alternative theories. The main emotional obstacles to accepting evolution are its apparent conflict with valued beliefs about God, souls, and morality. We draw on the philosophy of science and on a psychological theory of cognitive and emotional belief revision to make suggestions about what can be done to improve acceptance of Darwinian ideas.     

Darwin’s Other Bulldog: Charles Kingsley and the Popularisation of Evolution in Victorian England

The nineteenth-century Anglican Priest Charles Kingsley (1819?C1875) was a significant populariser of Darwin??s theory of evolution by natural selection. Kingsley was successful in this regard because he developed such diverse connections throughout his career. In the 1840s he associated with Chartists and radical journalists; in the 1850s and 1860s he moved freely in scientific circles and was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1856 and Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1863. In 1859 he was appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. In 1860 the Prince Consort was willing and able to secure Kingsley appointment as the Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and he subsequently became tutor to the Prince of Wales. Thereafter he was frequently invited into high Victorian Society. A friend of ??Darwin??s Bulldog?? Thomas Huxley, of the eminent geologist Charles Lyell and a correspondent of Darwin, at every turn he sought to promote Darwin??s ideas as theologically orthodox, a life-long campaign in which he was eminently successful.     

Evolution and Education: Lessons from Thomas Huxley

Thomas Huxley more than anyone else was responsible for disseminating Darwin’s theory in the western world and maintained that investigating the history of life should be regarded as a purely scientific question free of theological speculation. The content and rhetorical strategy of Huxley’s defense of evolution is analyzed. Huxley argued that the classification of humans should be determined independent of any theories of origination of species. Besides providing evidence that demonstrated the close relationship between apes and humans, he also argued that a pithecoid ancestry in no way degraded humankind. In his broader defense of evolution he drew on his agnosticism to define what science could and could not explain. Theology made empirical claims and needed to be subject to the same standards of evidence as scientific claims. He maintained that even most scientific objections to evolution were religiously based. The objections to the theory fundamentally remain the same as in the nineteenth century and much can be learned from Huxley to develop effective strategies for educating the public about evolution. Huxley’s own scientific articles as well as his popular writings provide numerous examples that could be harnessed not only for the teaching of evolution, but also for understanding science as a process.     

Developing web-based curricula: Issues and challenges

This study first offers a defence of the view that natural science has transcultural intellectual characteristics relevant to its educational purposes and examines those characteristics under their ontic, epistemic, and value‐related aspects. While the epistemic domain has been most prominent in relation to the science curriculum and its reform, it is the ontic stance of science that is its most distinctive characteristic. Science stands in an attenuated relationship to forms of human valuing, but curriculum reform has attempted to bring value‐related, and particularly ethical, matters into its remit. Science curriculum reform can be understood as an intellectual repositioning in relation to these three domains. This study relates this repositioning to the educational purposes of science, focusing particularly on a tension between liberal and instrumental purposes. Reform of the science curriculum is most coherently based on its distinctive ontic and epistemic characteristics, within a broader curricular framework.     

Darwinism Then and Now: The Divide Over Form and Function

As biologists have recognized since Aristotle, there are two complementary ways of looking at organisms: one can think of them from the viewpoint of homology, asking about the isomorphisms between different organisms and even within the organisms themselves; or one can think of them from the viewpoint of adaptation or final cause, asking about the ends that the features serve. I look at this divide with special respect to the theory of evolution through natural selection as first announced by the English naturalist Charles Darwin in his Origin of Species in 1859, considering both different interpretations that scholars today make of Darwin’s work and the overall implications of Darwin’s achievements for the homology/adaptation, often called the ‘form/function,’ divide.     

生物进化思想的发展

生物进化的思想经历了产生、确立及发展的过程,至今进化理论仍在完善之中。拉马克(JeanBaptisteLamarck,1744~1829)是第一个提出生物进化观点的学者。查理士·达尔文(CharlesRobertDarwin,1809~1882)提出了广为人们接受的自然选择学说。其他科学家不断地对生物进化的理论予以完善。     

Gálapagos Islands and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

The Gálapagos Islands are closely associated with Darwin’s name because the animals and plants living on these islands provided clues to Darwin to formulate his theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Gálapagos is a group of 19 volcanic, Pacific islands on the equator, about 1000 km west of Ecuador of South America. Being volcanic, there was no life on them when they were formed; all organisms presently living on the islands are the descendants of those that came from the South American mainland. Darwin visited these islands in 1835 during his voyage around the world in HMS Beagle and stayed for five weeks, studying and collecting plants, animals, and rock samples from the islands. His detailed studies of the collections upon his return to London, particularly on tortoises, mockingbirds, and finches, revealed that all these species living on the Gálapagos were endemic to the island and did not occur anywhere else in the world, but all of them closely resembled the species present on the South American mainland. This realization made him speculate that the Gálapagos inhabitants, after they arrived from the mainland, evolved into different species over the years, shaped by the environment of the islands. He visualized evolutionary changes as a result of the competition amongst individuals under changed environmental conditions, which acted as a selective agent. Under such selection, those individuals possessing favorable variations survived and reproduced, passing on their variations to their offspring, and those without them were eliminated. Over the years, the concept of evolution has become one of the most important, powerful and unifying concepts in biology.     

Rómulo de Carvalho’s Work on the Popularization of Science During Salazarism

This article provides an account of Rómulo de Carvalho’s most prominent works on the popularization of science during the Salazarist regime in Portugal. Carvalho has been praised for his ‘unique’ writing style, for his uncommon ability to communicate scientific knowledge with clarity to a wide audience: he wrote to teachers, to secondary students, to the layman and even to the rural peasantry. Most of his books and articles on popularization explored the History and Philosophy of Science, and it has been claimed that he influenced many youngsters to pursue scientific careers. Given the repressive political context imposed by Salazarism, it is argued that Carvalho’s work on the popularization of science had a humanist and libertarian connotation. However, intriguingly, different from some of his contemporaries who also promoted humanistic education for all, Carvalho was never targeted by the Dictatorship. The article seeks to shed light on this matter. It points out the educational reach of Carvalho’s writings and suggests that popularization of science in repressive regimes is not necessarily a problematic issue as long as it does not threat the status quo.     

Teaching Darwinian Evolution: Learning from Religious Education

This article examines what science education might be able to learn from phenomenological religious education’s attempts to teach classes where students hold a plurality of religious beliefs. Recent statements as to how best to accomplish the central pedagogical concept of ‘learning from religion’ as a vehicle for human transformation are explored, and then used to appraise the historical research into how Charles Darwin’s responses to religious ideas influenced and were influenced by his scientific work. The issues identified as crucial for science educators to be aware of when teaching students Darwinian evolution are then outlined and, finally, suggestions are made to enable individual students to examine how their personal religious beliefs might interact with their growing understanding of Darwin’s evolutionary approach.     

What is ‘Natural’ in Natural Selection?

To understand Darwin’s concept of natural selection, we have to contrast it with his characterization of artificial selection, and then ask: what is natural in natural selection? While we do this, we develop two distinctions: one between ‘change by transformative action’ and ‘change by selection’, and another between ‘artificial selection’ and ‘natural selection’. The first distinction helps us understand evolution by selection and the second natural selection.     

Charles Darwin and Evolution: Illustrating Human Aspects of Science

Recently, the nature of science (NOS) has become recognized as an important element within the K-12 science curriculum. Despite differences in the ultimate lists of recommended aspects, a consensus is emerging on what specific NOS elements should be the focus of science instruction and inform textbook writers and curriculum developers. In this article, we suggest a contextualized, explicit approach addressing one core NOS aspect: the human aspects of science that include the domains of creativity, social influences and subjectivity. To illustrate these ideas, we have focused on Charles Darwin, a scientist whose life, work and thought processes were particularly well recorded at the time and analyzed by scholars in the succeeding years. Historical facts are discussed and linked to core NOS ideas. Creativity is illustrated through the analogies between the struggle for existence in human societies and in nature, between artificial and natural selection, and between the division of labor in human societies and in nature. Social influences are represented by Darwin’s aversion of criticism of various kinds and by his response to the methodological requirements of the science of that time. Finally, subjectivity is discussed through Darwin’s development of a unique but incorrect source for the origin of variations within species.     

Fostering an Interest in Science in a Typically Underrepresented Population

ABSTRACT:  This "case study" details how food science was introduced into the classrooms of a typically underrepresented population. James Sarakatsannis, an 8th grade physical science teacher, was planning a unit that would use fast food to teach science to his classes, when he came across the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) website and a wealth of information available to teachers. Along with the valuable materials James found on the website to teach food science, he also found the "Find a Food Scientist" tool and invited 3 local food scientists into his classroom at John Philip Sousa Middle School in the inner city of Washington, D.C., where many of his students represent a typically underrepresented population in the field of food science. Food was a common medium that all of his students were familiar with and had an interest in, and it turned out to be a great tool to discuss various physical science topics in the classroom. The local food scientist visits were an excellent supplement to the topics he was already covering with the students in class. Many students developed a greater interest in science in general after the unit on food science. The unit also may have planted the seed for an education or career in food science somewhere down the line for the 70 13- to 16-year-old students in James's 2 8th grade physical science classes.     

The origin of species after 150 years

A happy accident enabled the young Charles Darwin to go on a voyage of exploration a round the world. Among the outcomes of that voyage was a book, The Origin of Species, which was published in 1859. In it Darwin developed aperspective of the living world that, as we have come to realise, encapsulates its essence. By viewing plants and animals as dynamical entities that were subject to external forces, he was able to show convincingly that they had evolved, on the whole by a process known as natural selection. In doing so he made the point that the living world was explainable on the basis of natural laws and, at the same time, that biology can lay claim to an autonomous status among the natural sciences. Paradoxically, he a ccomplished all this with out knowing how heredity worked or variations occurred. This article attempts to look at The Origin of Species from the vantage point of the present. Anaccount of the events that led to the writing of the book will be followed by a quick run through its contents. The essay ends with a mention of some issues that continue to engage evolutionary biologists today. The author has a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago. His research interests lie in the areas of developmental biology and evolution. Text of the L K Ananthakrishnan Memorial Lecture, Pune, 13 February 2009.     

David N. Reznick’s The “Origin” Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the “Origin of Species”: A Précis

David Reznick is one of the world’s leading evolutionary biologists. His book on Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species is given here in a précis, in order to show the underlying approach that he takes towards a work that is a classic in his field. It is shown that Reznick’s interests are less in Darwin for his own sake and more in the importance of Darwin’s ideas for science today.