Book Review: Darwin and Doctrine: The Compatibility of Evolution and Catholicism by Daniel Kuebler

Darwin and Doctrine: The Compatibility of Evolution and Catholicism by Daniel Kuebler

The supposed conflict between science and religion is the basis for a lot of arguments from people at the far end of both camps. Rather than meet in the middle by finding out about each other's positions, they hunker down in their trenches and lob truth bombs at each other. After several hundred years of conflict, you'd think they'd adopt a different tactic. For such people, the "I'm right, you're wrong" victory is more important than reconciling differences by finding the complicated, integrated truth together.

Daniel Kuebler seeks just such a reconciliation. Operating from the Catholic assumption that there is no genuine conflict between faith and reason, a concept that dates back at least as far as Saint Augustine, he looks at historic understandings of the issues. On the Catholic side, he details the growing understanding of the first chapters of Genesis and how a literal historical interpretation is both unnecessary and unlikely. The origin of the universe is described from a theological perspective at a time when the best science was a nascent science. Sure, a fundamentalist mentality can be found throughout Christian history. But wiser heads can also be found who have taken science seriously and made strides to reconcile the claims of science and the claims of Christianity. On the science side, Kuebler delves into the understanding of evolution as found in Darwin's writings which is quite different from what is asserted by many of Darwin's followers. Evolution is more complicated and incorporates more influences than natural selection. Other natural processes are involved. Digging into the details of current scientific thinking about evolution yields a more complicated and nuanced understanding of how species like homo sapiens came into existence and developed into prominence.

One issue in the debate is a matter of demarcation. Science is great at discovering and explaining processes in the natural world, including the relationships between living organisms (and those that used to live but have been relegated to the fossil record). Theology is great at discovering and explaining relationships between the divine and the human and how that impacts the lives of rational beings. Science and theology look at relationships of things but in different ways and with different ends in mind. They do not have two separate fields of truth, they have two related fields that can inform one another. 

This book is fascinating reading. It is written for a general audience, eschewing highly technical details in science and in theology. But the explanations get into enough detail to make their points. Also, the book is as up-to-date as can be, using the most current advances in both fields to establish how they can be reconciled with each other and provide mutual support and insight.

Highly recommended.

SAMPLE QUOTE:

"Much of the perceived conflict between evolution and Catholicism stems from a failure to distinguish what can legitimately be read from the Book of Nature and what can legitimately be read from the Book of Scripture. While scientific discovery--the 'reading' of the Book of Nature--can uncover how the planets move or how species are related, it cannot fully explain the purpose of man or answer why a universe that is order to support life exists in the first place." [p. 248]