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

Ayala, Francisco J. (2007)Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion, Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press

Barton N. H., Coe J. B. (2009) On the application of statistical physics to evolutionary biology. J. Theor. Biol. 259, 317 – 324.

Barton S.C. and Wilkinson D. (eds.) (2009) Reading Genesis After Darwin. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Batchelor, G. K. (1967), An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Brooke, J. H. (1991) Science and Religion – Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Conway Morris, Simon (2003), Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Darwin, Charles R. (1856) letter to Joseph D. Hooker, available at http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-1924.

Deane-Drummond, Celia (2009) Christ and Evolution: Wonder and Wisdom. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Edwards, Denis (1999) The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian Theology. New York: Paulist Press.

Engelhardt, D., & Shakhnovich, E. I. (2019). Mutation rate variability as a driving force in adaptive evolution. Physical review. E, 99(2-1), 022424.

Habel, N. C. (2001), ‘ “Is the Wild Ox Willing to Serve You?” Challenging the Mandate to Dominate’ in The Earth Story in Wisdom Traditions eds. N. C. Habel and S. Wurst. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press

Harrison, P. (2015), The Territories of Science and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lewontin, R. C. (1974) The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. New York: Columbia University Press

Martincorena I. et al. (2012) ‘Evidence of non-random mutation rates suggests an evolutionary risk management strategy’, Nature, 485, 95-9

McLeish, Tom (2014) Faith and Wisdom in Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press

McLeish T. C.B., Lancaster T. and Pexton, M. (2019)' Emergence and Topological Order in Classical and Quantum Systems’, Studies Hist. Phil. Mod. Physics, 66, 155-169

Moore, Aubrey (1891) "The Christian doctrine of God," in Charles Gore, ed., Lux Mundi, London: John Murray

Neiman, S. (2016), The Rationality of the World: A Philosophical Reading of the Book of Job, https://www.abc.net.au/religion/philosophical-reading-of-the-book-of-job/11054038 (accessed 20.3.2020).

Ricoeur, Paul (1991) ‘Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology’ in From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics II, trans. Kathleen Blamey and John B. Thompson, Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Russell, Robert John (2013), "Recent theological interpretations of evolution," Theology and Science, 11, 169-184.

Schaper S, Louis AA (2014) ‘The Arrival of the Frequent: How Bias in Genotype-Phenotype Maps Can Steer Populations to Local Optima.’ PLoS ONE 9(2): e86635.

Southgate, Christopher (2008), The Groaning of Creation, Louisville: John Knox Press

van Kampen, N.G. (1981), Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry, Amsterdam: North‐Holland,

Winston, D. (1971) History of Religions, Vol. 11, No. 2 (pp. 185-2020

Scientia et Fides

Downloads

Published

2020-10-30

How to Cite

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 9 December 2023]. DOI 10.12775/SetF.2020.014.

Issue

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

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Scientia et Fides

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.

  • The Licensor grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work/related rights item specified in § 1 within the following fields: a) recording of Work/related rights item; b) reproduction (multiplication) of Work/related rights item in print and digital technology (e-book, audiobook); c) placing the copies of the multiplied Work/related rights item on the market; d) entering the Work/related rights item to computer memory; e) distribution of the work in electronic version in the open access form on the basis of Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 3.0) via the digital platform of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press and file repository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
  • Usage of the recorded Work by the Licensee within the above fields is not restricted by time, numbers or territory.
  • The Licensor grants the license for the Work/related rights item to the Licensee free of charge and for an unspecified period of time.

FULL TEXT License Agreement

Stats

Number of views and downloads: 379
Number of citations: 3