REV - Scientia et Fides - Vol 8, Nº2 (2020)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/58797
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Results
- Scientific and Theological Responses for Evolution and Biological Complexity(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Kadykalo, A. (Andrii)The article analyzes aspects of the relationship between evolution and bio-logical complexity and the attempts made by scholars and theologians to interpret it within the limits of reductionist scientism or theism. For this purpose, firstly, attention is focused on explaining the meaning of the concept of «evolution» and its historical and philosophical transformation in the context of the idea of complexity. Secondly, the notion of complexity in theology is used as evidence to support teleology. This approach is criticized by some scholars who consider evolution as a random prosses. They give it the status of a universal metaphysical assumption in evolution. The scientists and theologists both formulate metaphysical assumptions differently to interpret evolution.
- Is Intelligent Design the Answer to Darwinism?Marcos Eberlin’s Foresightand the Limits of Irreducible Complexity as Scientific Paradigm(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Morgan, J. (Jason)Marcos Eberlin is a chemist and mass spectrometer who advances in a new book a refined Intelligent Design (ID) theory hinging on “foresight,” or the apparent teleology and purpose discernible in biological, chemical, and other complex life sys-tems. Repurposing older ID arguments, such as those of “irreducible complexity,” and introducing new examples of phenomena pointed to by other ID theorists, Eberlin makes a strong argument for mindful creation by a “superintellect”. But is ID sufficient to answer Darwinism? Does “foresight” go far enough in providing an alternative view of the origin of complex lifeforms? I argue that Eberlin, and other ID theorists, does not have a robust-enough definition of science to counter non-theistic theories of biology and biochemistry. An Aristotelian-Thomistic understanding of science allows us to go beyond the divide between ID and a-theistic theories and move the science-and-faith debate onto more solid ground.
- La impronta de Pierre Teilhard de Chardin en las tesis evolutivas de Karl Schmitz-Moormann(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Casadesús, R. (Ricard)En este artículo exponemos las intuiciones del teólogo y biólogo alemán Karl Schmitz-Moormann sobre la evolución. Como leitmotiv subyacente en toda su obra, Schmitz-Moormann tiene a Teilhard de Chardin. Inspirado por Teilhard y su metafísica de la unión, introduce un nuevo concepto, a saber, la uni-totalidad. Veremos aquí cómo Schmitz-Moormann observa diversas uni-totalidades a lo largo del progreso evoluti-vo, desde las partículas subatómicas hasta las agrupaciones humanas. Esas diversas uni-totalidades implican, a la vez, diversidad de unión, que puede ser explicada por causas que van desde la interacción nuclear hasta el amor interpersonal. Análogamente, Schmitz-Moormann ve nuestro Dios tri-uno como la Uni-totalidadsuprema unida por amor, a la que se acercan las uni-totalidades creadas.
- The Theory of Evolution in the Writings of Joseph Ratzinger(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Novo-Villaverde, F. J. (Francisco Javier)In this article, I analyse the texts in which Joseph Ratzinger deals with biolog-ical evolution, particularly in the context of the compatibility between faith in creation and acceptance of the theory of evolution. His first writings on the topic, until 1979, contain the most elaborate and deepest theological and philosophical insights, with a defence of the compatibility between faith in creation and the theory of evolution when the boundaries of their respective explanatory frameworks are respected. At the beginning of the 1980s, still at the philosophical level, Ratzinger engages with the work some atheist scientists who try to portray evolution as a “first philosophy”. The 1999 lecture at the Sorbonne University marks the beginning of a period in which he criticizes some technical aspects of the theory of evolution, a position that seems to have been prompted by contacts with anti-evolution German intellectuals in the pre-vious years. After the 2006 meeting of the Schulerkreis in Castel Gandolfo, in which his criticism of evolution reaches its climax, his references to the topic were few and he returned to the philosophical ideas expressed in his earlier writings, stressing that the intrinsic rationality and inner logic of the cosmos point to a creating Reason.
- Machine or Melody? Joseph Ratzinger on Divine Causality in Evolutionary Creation(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Ramage, M.J. (Matthew J.)In a document penned under the direction of its then-president Cardinal Jo-seph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s International Theological Commission observed that many neo-Darwinian materialists and their Christian critics share a misunderstanding of the nature of divine causality. This article explores the thought of Joseph Ratzinger in view of proposing the features of a path that seeks to eschew these faulty understandings of how God causes evolutionary change within our world, thus providing an alterna-tive to the Intelligent Design movement’s approach to creation. . Ratzinger has a deep respect for the integrity of nature, rejecting the notion that God is a “craftsman” who “tinkers” with the world. According to Ratzinger, evolutionary change occurs “precisely in the processes of a living being” even as human beings are “not the mere product of development.” Finally, the emeritus pontiff insists that creation is an ever-present act that unfolds “in the manner in which thought is creative,” a dynamic that he de-scribes variously as a story, drama, melody, and symphony. Wedding these and other key insights, this article submits that Ratzinger’s thought on evolution should lead us to conceive of creation less along the lines of an intelligently designed machine and more as a masterpiece storythat is continually being told as its plot unfolds naturally over the course of time.
- Created Co-creator, a Theory of Human Becoming in an Era of Science and Technology(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Siaw-Kwakye, A. (Ahenkora)Scientific discoveries and the emergence of cosmological theories such as the Big Bang Theory and evolution have challenged the Christian doctrine of creation and its reliability on many fronts, because the discoveries appear to contradict the Christian account as to how creation unfolded. Lutheran theologian Philip Hefner sees the situation as an additional interpretative task to theologians. He, however, posits that scientific discoveries present opportunities to communicate the Christian message through social and scientific experience in meaningful ways to a broader society. He expresses the notion that religion will remain relevant only if it measures up to sci-ence, because we are in a science and technology era. Hefner therefore introduced the concept of created co-creator as a metaphor and analytical tool to explain the meaning and purpose of humans within the biosphere. The concept is characterized by the ability to communicate religion through science and to relate with available models of origin. This work expounds on the concept of created co-creator’s ability to explain human technological trajectory in theology. There is also an effort to establish a relationship between Hefner’s concept and Haraway’s cyborg with an emphasis on the concept’s ability to communicate the Christian doctrine of creation through scientific knowledge and why such an enterprise is useful.
- Cues, Values and Conflict: Reassessing Evolution Wars Media Persuasion(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Aechtner, T. (Thomas)It has been posited that persuasive cues impart Evolution Wars communica-tions with persuasive force extending beyond the merits of their communicated argu-ments. Additionally, it has been observed that the array of cues displayed throughout proevolutionist materials is exceeded in both the number and nuance of Darwin-skeptic persuasion techniques. This study reassesses these findings by exploring how persua-sive cues in the Evolution Wars are being articulated with reference to the Cultural Cognition Thesis and Moral Foundations Theory. Observations of Institute for Creation Research, Answers in Genesis, and the Center for Science and Culture media are reeval-uated. These findings are juxtaposed with data pertaining to Richard Dawkins Foun-dation for Reason and Science, National Center for Science Education, and BioLogos Foundation broadcasts. The outcomes reveal how values claims and morally charged language are concentrated within the works of antievolutionists and New Atheist media makers, who collectively promote some manner of religion-science conflict.
- Thomas Aquinas on the Proportionate Causes of Living Species(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Carl, B.T. (Brian T.)The principle of proportionate causality is often cited as a cause for concern that Thomistic metaphysics may be irreconcilable with a theory of biological evolution. St. Thomas does hold that for the generation of what he calls perfect animals, a gener-ator of the same species is required. This study clarifies what the proportionate causes of generated organisms are for Thomas, examining his views about spontaneous gen-eration, reproductive generation, and hybridization, while also articulating the roles of both the heavenly bodies and their separate movers as universal causes of generation. This study establishes that Thomas’s assertion of the need for a univocal generator for perfect animals is grounded not in the principle of proportionate causality, but rather in physical and biological doctrines received from Aristotle and in a causal principle that seems reconcilable with biological evolution, namely, that a remote universal cause requires more mediating causes to produce more powerful effects.
- Could There Have Been Human Families Where Parents Came from Different Populations: Denisovans, Neanderthals or Sapiens?(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Uhlik, M.E. (Marcin Edward)No later than ~500kya the population of Homo sapiens split into three lin-eages of independently evolving human populations: Sapiens, Neanderthals and Den-isovans. After several hundred thousands years, they met several times and interbred with low frequency. Evidence of coupling between them is found in fossil records of Neanderthal – Sapiens offspring (Oase 1) and Neanderthal – Denisovans (Denisova 11)offspring. Moreover, the analysis of ancient and present-day population DNA shows that there were several significant gene flows between populations. Many introgressed sequences from Denisovans and Neanderthals were identified in genomes of currently living populations. All these data, according to biological species definition, may in-dicate that populations of H. sapiens sapiens and two extinct populations H. sapiens neanderthalensis and H. sapiens denisovensis are one species. Ontological transitions from pre-human beings to humans might have happened before the initial splitting of the Homo sapiens population or after the splitting during evolution of H. sapiens sapiens lineage in Africa. If the ensoulment of the first homo occurred in the evolving populations of H. sapiens sapiens, then occasionally mixed couples (Neanderthals – Sa-piens or Denisovans – Sapiens) created relations that functioned as a family, in which children could have matured.
- Anthropogenesis and the Soul(Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2020) Ehrman, T.P. (Therence P.)The science of evolution acutely raises the perennial question of humankind’s place in the world. How does the theological anthropology of humans as imago Deirelate to an evolutionary anthropology with human beings derived from ancestral hominid species? Evolutionary biologists disclose ever greater similarities and conti-nuity between animals and humans. Is human distinctiveness simply continuous with other ancestral forms of life or is there any kind of discontinuity? The answers to these questions depend not only on zoological considerations but also on one’s philosophy of nature. The standard anthropology within the Catholic Church is the dual-origin model: the human body originates through evolution, but the human soul is directly created by God. This formulation, however, is not without difficulties, primarily for its seeming Cartesian dualism of a body and soul as distinct substances. This paper develops the anthropology of David Braine who, drawing upon Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Lud-wig Wittgenstein, clearly situates humans as animals in great continuity with them. However, as linguistic animals who think in a medium of words, humans have a form of life—a soul—that transcends bodily processes. Braine’s anthropology provides a more coherent anthropology to understand the continuity and discontinuity of the human person in phylogenetic relationship to other species within an evolutionary perspective