Evolution as an Unwrapping of the Gift of Freedom

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2020.014

Keywords

theistic evolution, Wisdom, genotype-phenotype map, statistical mechanics, emergence, theodicy

Abstract

Extending the approach to a ‘theology of science’ developed in Faith and Wisdom in Science (McLeish 2014), I expand its theme of the tension between chaos and emergent order, within the arc of the Biblical story of creation, towards a theology of evolutionary science. In addition to the material in Job, the book of Wisdomprovides a remarkable account of transmutation of species, within a recapitulation of the Exodus theme, that I juxtapose with a modern genotype-phenotype theory of evolutionary dynamics, exploiting analogies with statistical mechanics. The dual and connected structures of microscopic and macroscopic provide a locus for the Joban tensions of chaos and emergent order, and provide an interpretative narrative for the emergent directionality of evolution, and a theology that situates within a creation of freedom to explore the potential of the created order.

Author Biography

Tom McLeish, University of York

Tom McLeish, FRS, is Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics and also in the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York, UK. His research in ‘soft matter and biological physics,’ is highly interdisciplinary, including industrial collaboration. He has published at academic and popular levels in theology/science and humanities/science issues including the books Faith and Wisdom in Science (OUP 2014) and The Poetry and Music of Science (OUP 2019). He was Chair of the Royal Society’s Education Committee (2015-2020) and is a Trustee of the John Templeton Foundation. 

References

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2020-10-30

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1.
MCLEISH, Tom. Evolution as an Unwrapping of the Gift of Freedom. Scientia et Fides. Online. 30 October 2020. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 43-64. [Accessed 21 May 2025]. DOI 10.12775/SetF.2020.014.

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Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020): Philosophical and Theological Aspects of Evolution

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