Biology and Christian EthicsThis stimulating and wide-ranging book mounts a profound enquiry into some of the most pressing questions of our age, by examining the relationship between biological science and Christianity. The history of biological discovery is explored from the point of view of a leading philosopher and ethicist. What effect should modern biological theory and practice have on Christian understanding of ethics? How much of that theory and practice should Christians endorse? Can Christians, for example, agree that biological changes are not governed by transcendent values, or that there are no clear or essential boundaries between species? To what extent can 'Nature' set our standards? Professor Clark takes a reasoned look at biological theory since Darwin and argues that an orthodox Christian philosophy is better able to accommodate the truth of such theory than is the sort of progressive, meliorist interpretation of Christian doctrine which is usually offered as the properly 'modern' option. |
From inside the book
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Page iii
... claims to value - neutrality have prompted renewed interest in ethics within the secular academic world . There is , therefore , a need for studies in Christian ethics which , as well as being concerned with the relevance of Christian ...
... claims to value - neutrality have prompted renewed interest in ethics within the secular academic world . There is , therefore , a need for studies in Christian ethics which , as well as being concerned with the relevance of Christian ...
Page x
... claim too much in the name of science . By reducing ethics simply to evolutionary or socio - biological impulses ... claims in his paradig- matic account of evolution . The other challenge is to scientists and theologians alike . Stephen ...
... claim too much in the name of science . By reducing ethics simply to evolutionary or socio - biological impulses ... claims in his paradig- matic account of evolution . The other challenge is to scientists and theologians alike . Stephen ...
Page 1
... claim : science deals with ' facts ' and religion only with ' values ' . That claim is not unreasonable , though I believe it to be false ; but if there is such a distinction , that itself The basic error of fundamentalism is something ...
... claim : science deals with ' facts ' and religion only with ' values ' . That claim is not unreasonable , though I believe it to be false ; but if there is such a distinction , that itself The basic error of fundamentalism is something ...
Page 2
... claim is made , for example , by Steve Jones in In the Blood : God , genes and destiny ( HarperCollins : London 1996 ) ... claims strike me as obvious . 5 These include Rabbinic Judaism , the various Christian churches , and Islam : all ...
... claim is made , for example , by Steve Jones in In the Blood : God , genes and destiny ( HarperCollins : London 1996 ) ... claims strike me as obvious . 5 These include Rabbinic Judaism , the various Christian churches , and Islam : all ...
Page 5
... claim on our devotion and belief . But whatever the intellectual or psychological solution may eventu- ally be , at least the question must be asked : how human , how religious , how Christian can a biologically informed intelligence ...
... claim on our devotion and belief . But whatever the intellectual or psychological solution may eventu- ally be , at least the question must be asked : how human , how religious , how Christian can a biologically informed intelligence ...
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actually ancestors animals Aristotle beauty believe better biological breed C. S. Lewis Cambridge University Press chance characters Christian Ethics civilized claim create creatures Darwin Darwinian Darwinists demand descendants dogs E. O. Wilson earth effect Enneads evolution Evolution of Sex evolutionary exist expect fact feel females forms G. K. Chesterton genes genetic God's human imagine individual insist intellect intelligence Jesus judgement kill kind less lineage living London males Manichaean matter Metaphysics mind Mismeasure modern moral moralists natural selection Nicomachean Ethics non-human obvious offspring once organisms ourselves parents particular pederasty perhaps phenotypic philosophers Plato pleasure Plotinus population possible probably problem reason religion scientists seems selfish selfish gene sense sexual share slaves social society sort species Stephen Jay Gould Stoic story suggest suppose survive theory things thought tion true truth variations virtue Whewell wish wrong