Darwin's Gift: To Science and Religion [Hardcover]

Francisco Ayala (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 2007

With the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation for nature's diversity. This was to be his gift to science and society; at last, we had an explanation for how life came to be on Earth.

Scientists agree that the evolutionary origin of animals and plants is a scientific conclusion beyond reasonable doubt. They place it beside such established concepts as the roundness of the earth, its revolution around the sun, and the molecular composition of matter. That evolution has occurred, in other words, is a fact.

Yet as we approach the bicentennial celebration of Darwin's birth, the world finds itself divided over the truth of evolutionary theory. Consistently endorsed as "good science" by experts and overwhelmingly accepted as fact by the scientific community, it is not always accepted by the public, and our schools continue to be battlegrounds for this conflict. From the Tennessee trial of a biology teacher who dared to teach Darwin's theory to his students in 1925 to Tammy Kitzmiller's 2005 battle to keep intelligent design out of the Dover district schools in Pennsylvania, it's clear that we need to cut through the propaganda to quell the cacophony of raging debate.

With the publication of Darwin's Gift, a voice at once fresh and familiar brings a rational, measured perspective to the science of evolution. An acclaimed evolutionary biologist with a background in theology, Francisco Ayala offers clear explanations of the science, reviews the history that led us to ratify Darwin's theories, and ultimately provides a clear path for a confused and conflicted public.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Taking a more pacific tone than Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett in this marvelous little book, Ayala, a UC-Irvine biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, offers a way to reconcile religion and science on the issue of evolution. He is uniquely well suited to address this: before becoming an evolutionary biologist, he trained for the Catholic priesthood. According to Ayala, Darwin provides both a clear understanding of the nature of the physical world and an explanation for its flaws that takes the onus for them off of God. Natural selection gives scientists an eminently plausible and verifiable explanation of the shape species and members of those species have taken over millions of years. For religious believers, evolution offers an explanation for the flawed designs—such as the too narrow human birth canal and our badly designed jawbone—that might call into question the work of a benevolent designer. Ayala points out that science and religion perform different roles in human understanding: science offers a way of knowing the material world, but matters of value and meaning—the core of religion—are outside of the scope of scientific investigation. This elegant book provides the single best introduction to Darwin and the development of evolutionary biology now available. Illus. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Publisher

With the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation for nature's diversity. This was to be his gift to science and society - at last, we had an explanation for how life came to be on Earth.

Scientists agree that the evolutionary origin of animals and plants is a scientific conclusion beyond reasonable doubt. They place it beside such established concepts as the roundness of the earth, its revolution around the sun, and the molecular composition of matter. That evolution has occurred, in other words, is a fact.

Yet as we approach the bicentennial celebration of Darwin's birth, the world finds itself divided over the truth of evolutionary theory. Consistently endorsed as "good science" by experts and overwhelmingly accepted as fact by the scientific community, questions nevertheless remain it is not generally accepted by the public - and our schools continue to be battleground for this conflict on which this war is fought. From the Tennessee trial of a biology teacher who dared to teach Darwin's theory to his students in 1925 to Tammy Kitzmiller's 2005 battle to keep intelligent design out of the Dover district schools in Pennsylvania, it's clear that we need to cut through the propaganda to quell the cacophony of raging debate.

With the publication of Darwin's Gift, a voice at once fresh and yet familiar brings a rational, measured perspective to the science of evolution. An acclaimed evolutionary biologist with a background in theology, Francisco Ayala offers clear explanations of the science, reviews the history that led us to ratify Darwin's theories, and ultimately provides a clear path for a confused and conflicted public.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Joseph Henry Press (April 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0309102316
• ISBN-13: 978-0309102315
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Calm and reasoned May 21, 2007

By viktor_57

Format:Hardcover

Professor Francisco Jose Ayala, who once trained for the Catholic priesthood, clearly and concisely explains Darwin's ideas about natural selection and evolution by common descent, concepts as central to our understanding of biology as atomic theory is to chemistry or relativity is to physics, in "Darwin's Gift: To Science and Religion". This is Darwin's gift to science. Ayala also shows how Darwinism is not only compatible with Christianity, but actually helps to glorify the majesty and grandeur of God by contributing to our understanding and appreciation of the material world while absolving God, a perfect being or concept, of the imperfections of His creations. This is Darwin's gift to religion.

Put another way, Darwin reconciled the existence of evil with a benign God by showing how all living things developed naturally, without any supernatural guidance, from previously living things, i.e. evolution by common descent. Darwin may have removed God from the daily workings of the material world, but by doing so, he brought us out of the dark ignorance of supernaturalism into the light of reason and placed God in a more exalted realm at the center of our continued moral strivings and quest for meaning and values.

As of this writing, no search features have been provided for this book, so the table of contents is reprinted below to give some indication of the scope of this book.

Chapter Title Page

1 Introduction 1

2 Intelligent design: the original version 15

3 Darwin's revolution: design without designer 27

4 Natural selection 49

5 Arguing for evolution 79

6 Human evolution 95

7 Molecular biology 117

8 Follies and fatal flaws 137

9 Beyond biology 161

10 Postscript for the Cognoscenti 181

"Darwin's Gift" brings clear explanations of the science, history and theology of Darwin's revolutionary idea to the general public, who, judging by the results of some recent polls, are sorely in need of some education on all three fronts. Otherwise, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, people with outdated eighteenth century ideas will continue to influence the unwary and ignorant, to the detriment of us all.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heart Of The Matter: What Does God Do? August 8, 2007

By James F. McGrath

Format:Hardcover

[reproduced from my blog, EXPLORING OUR MATRIX, at the author's request]

I've been reading several books on evolution, intelligent design, and related subjects, as I seek to decide on representative readings to assign for my religion and science course this Fall. It seems to me that the differences between many viewpoints centers around the question of what God does.

Naturalistic explanations of various things in the world around us have always challenged religious beliefs. The monotheistic God of the Abrahamic traditions continues to have adherents precisely because of the flexibility and all-encompassing character of this concept of God. While Zeus' thunderbolts are now the domain of meteorology rather than metaphysics, the God who is responsible for everything does not disappear so easily. Yet the question must be asked by any religious believer: if you believe in God, what do you envisage God doing, and how?

For Michael Behe, the answer must be that God at least does certain things that set in motion the subsequent evolutionary processes. If everything from the start of the universe can be explained in natural terms, then the concept of God becomes irrelevant and obsolete. For this reason, he spends his most recent book looking for The Edge of Evolution. That he is involved in the unceremonious and begrudging retreat of the God of the gaps further and further into the distant past, and thus further and further away from us, seems not to bother him. Nor does the moral objection to Intelligent Design, which has existed since before Darwin, to which he responds dismissively by stating that "Revulsion is not a scientific argument" (p.239). This is certainly true, but neither is the desire to find something for God to do in the world, in contrast to other things that God doesn't do. Having opened the door to the possibility of design, and thus the inclusion and integration of metaphysics, philosophy and theology into history, Behe then balks at either providing an answer to this moral objection or drawing the apparent implication that the designer is either malevolent or inept.

Much more helpful is Francis Ayala's book Darwin's Gift: To Science and Religion, which is appreciative of arguments such as those of Paley, even when disagreeing with his conclusions. Paley, after all, was working with the best scientific knowledge available in his time. Paley was also an opponent of slavery, which Ayala helpfully notes - it is easy to regard those whose views we disagree with as foolish, particularly authors in the past, and so it is helpful to be reminded of other aspects of their life and work, to remind us to be appreciative of their place in our intellectual history, as well as of the fact that no one alive today will not seem as off target as Paley to some future author writing with the benefit of centuries of hindsight.

Ayala takes completely seriously the evidence for evolution, and the fact that, now that we have DNA evidence, there really is no more doubt about common ancestry and evolution than about the criminals we put away on the basis of the same sorts of forensic evidence. Even Behe acknowledges as much.

The reason why Ayala is able to embrace not just the current state of scientific knowledge, but science as a way of knowing, is that he is able to regard statements about God and statements about the natural world as complementary. The danger here, of course, is that such language can become at best superfluous and at worst meaningless. All our language about God is metaphorical. But we still need at least some clarity if we wish to speak about events in the world, even or perhaps especially those that have natural explanations, as simultaneously 'acts of God'. Does this mean that we really see them as willed expressions of a personal deity, or as sacramental events that, even without outside tinkering, disclose transcendent aspects of the nature of reality to us?

One this is fairly certain. If one lives in North America, Western Europe or Australia, and in a number of other places as well, there is no use deceiving oneself about the character of one's theology. Just as there is no one in any of these places who believes in Zeus in the way that the Ancient Greeks did, so too there is no one who believes in God in precisely the same way that the early Christians did. Our worldview has changed, and attempting to will oneself into an outmoded view of the universe "by faith", even if it were possible (which it isn't), still would not be the same thing as taking that view of the universe for granted.

What is the fundamental difference between the various approaches to theology and to the intersection of religion and science today? The question of what (if anything) God does, and by what means. Answers to such questions will by definition involve metaphor - the challenge is to find metaphors that do justice to our deepest religious experiences and insights in a way that also does justice to not just the present state of our scientific knowledge, but the fact that science's track record suggests that natural explanations of things currently unexplained will one day be forthcoming.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Defense of Evolution and Condemnation of Intelligent Design From Ayala February 11, 2009

By John Kwok HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

During a public lecture held in the Spring of 2008 at the City College of New York, eminent evolutionary geneticist Francisco J. Ayala castigated biochemist Michael J. Behe for his inane espousal of Intelligent Design creationism, asserting that, as a biochemist, Behe ought to know better. Ayala's criticism was not one replete with venom, but instead, tinged with sorrow and pity, while still accusing Behe of being derelict in his professional scientific duty by not recognizing the overwhelming scientific facts in support of modern evolutionary theory. That lecture was truly an excellent summary of the main points of Ayala's 2007 book, "Darwin's Gift To Science", which is still one of the very best summations of the evidence for evolution and a most effective condemnation of - what eminent philosopher of science Philip Kitcher has referred to as "dead science" and yours truly as "mendacious intellectual pornography" - Intelligent Design creationism. Ayala, a former Roman Catholic monk, has rendered in elegant, exquisite, prose a most valuable service by using clear, concise logic in explaining how and why biological evolution is valid science, while Intelligent Design creationism isn't. Ayala's is a compelling line of logic, which doesn't founder on the hidden shoals of religious fervor, making the best, most persuasive, case I have read lately explaining why science and religion can co-exist successfully.

Ayala's introductory chapters discuss the origins of both Intelligent Design and Darwin's theory of evolution via natural selection. In Chapter Two, Ayala presents Intelligent Design as seen originally by English theologian William Paley, presenting an excellent historical survey of its religious origins within the early Christian Church. In Chapter Three, not only does Ayala provide us with a concise summary of Darwin's research, beginning with the HMS Beagle voyage, he argues persuasively that what Darwin did with his theory of evolution was to offer proof that design could exist in nature without requiring the existence of a Designer, in short, "Design without a Designer". How? By demonstrating that by the process of natural selection, complex organic structures could emerge without recourse to some external, "divine" intervention.

The most important chapters (Chapters Four to Eight) in Ayala's book deal with the evidence for evolution and against Intelligent Design. Chapter Four is an especially lucid, quite persuasive, overview of Natural Selection, and how it has been confirmed, not only by ecological and paleobiological data, but especially, in recent years, by overwhelming evidence from genetics and molecular biology. Ayala also explains how natural selection has served as the "engine" responsible for organismal complexity, refining further his earlier point (Chapter Three) as to how there could be "Design without a Designer". Chapter Five is an admirable summary of the ample evidence for evolution, from embryonic development and the fossil record, to biogeography and genetics. Chapter Six summarizes human evolution, emphasizing recent molecular data that affirms the close kinship between humanity and our nearest living relatives, the chimpanzees. Chapter Seven emphasizes the importance of recent developments in molecular biology which merely affirm the fact of evolution, discussing the degree of similarity of macromolecules such as nucleotides, and how they have been used in constructing molecular phylogenies and estimating the "molecular clock" of evolutionary divergence between lineages. Chapter Eight makes especially short work of such ludicrous Intelligent Design concepts as "Irreducible Complexity", explaining, for example, how the evolution of the molluscan eye from primitive mollusks to the most complex, modern cephalopods like the octopus and squid, demonstrates that a complicated structure such as the eye, can arise independently in two lineages - cephalopods and vertebrates - as the product of natural selection, not by direct intervention by an "Intelligent Designer".

Almost as an afterthought, Ayala addresses how and why religion and science should be viewed as separate, equally valid, aspects of human intellectual thought. He summarizes and stresses how mainstream Christian religions have reconciled themselves to the ample weight of scientific evidence for biological evolution (Chapter Nine), citing the views of some prominent contemporary theologians. Finally, in the concluding chapter (Chapter Ten), Ayala discusses the empirical nature of science itself, using as the two key illustrative examples, Darwin's field research during the HMS Beagle voyage and Mendel's pea inheritance experiments.