Abstract: The position that evolutionary biology makes the problem of evil worse for the theist is hardly new. Indeed, as we shall see, Darwin himself seems to have held it, and its more recent defenders include philosophers, scientists, historians and even theologians (though some of the evangelical Christian theologians who hold this position infer from it not that there is no God, but instead that the theory of evolution is false!). Consider, for example, the following three frequently quoted remarks. According to Bertrand Russell (1997, pp. 79–80), Religion in our day, has accommodated itself to the doctrine of evolution…. We are told that … evolution is the unfolding of an idea which has been in the mind of God throughout. It appears that during those ages … when animals were torturing each other with ferocious horns and agonizing stings, Omnipotence was quietly waiting for the ultimate emergence of man, with his still more exquisite powers of torture and his far more widely diffused cruelty. Why the Creator should have preferred to reach His goal by a process, instead of going straight to it, these modern theologians do not tell us.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 23
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