Evolution and Creation

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that Barbour's book Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues" takes a chronological approach starting with the medieval picture of the Universe as a synthesis between Aristotelian cosmology and Christian theology. The author points out that Barbour argues that nowhere is the divide between religion and science wider than in the debate between biologists and theologians and, in particular, in the debate between evolutionists and creationists, which goes to the very core of the divide between science and religion. The paper relates that evolution is a process of change over time that refers to the formation and development of life on earth. The idea that all living things evolved from simple organisms and changed through the ages to produce millions of species is known as the theory of organic evolution.

From the Paper:

"In his book, Barbour discusses the knowledge of historical geology prior to Darwin, and how Cuvier had reconstructed fossilized bones from extinct species, using these reconstructions to point out, to his students, that "a variety of creatures had been produced by special acts of divine intervention". Barbour the discusses the work of Hutton, who, through his research on large-scale geological processes, such as volcanoes and sedimentation, had concluded that these processes, acting across geological time, could act to provide different life forms with different habitats, and could also act to destroy life forms at different times to make way for other, new, life forms. Thus, Barbour argues, using Hutton's work as a prime example, "the need to reinterpret the Biblical accounts of the creation of living things was apparent to most literate persons long before Darwin's specific views made this need more acute"."

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