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Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

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scottnewmanIn the six decades since the publication of Julian Huxley’s Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, spectacular empirical advances in the biological sciences have been accompanied by equally significant developments within the core theoretical framework of the discipline. As a result, evolutionary theory today includes concepts and even entire new fields that were not part of the foundational structure of the Modern Synthesis.

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Sience and faith in a historical perspective

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23 Clips from an interview with Prof. Peter Harrison, former Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, and director of the Centre of the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland. Harrison gives a nuanced answers to questions on the differences and the interplay between science and faith from a historical perspective. He answers questions about the presumed conflict between science and faith, about Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin.

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How a world renowned physician and geneticist comes to belief

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Dr. Francis Collins is a physician and geneticist known for spearheading the Human Genome Project and for his landmark discoveries of disease genes. Talking to a terminally ill patient at her bedside made geneticist Francis Collins begin to think more carefully about his atheism. It led him to study C.S. Lewis, and realize that there was more to belief in God than he had thought. In these videos he tells his personal story.

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Can Darwinism Survive without Teleology?

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Origin_of_SpeciesEver since Darwin, the concept of teleology has been suspect among biologists. What is so controversial about teleology? Most likely, its history! From the earliest Greek philosophers on, it was widely believed that the world must have a purpose because, as Aristotle would put it, “nature does nothing in vain,” and neither does God, as a Jew or Christian would say. In this often misunderstood view, any change in this world is due to final causes that move things to an ultimate goal, a predetermined end. All things would achieve certain ends or goals because they were designed that way by nature or by God; that’s how hormones, for instance, are supposed to reach their target cells.

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The Enigma of the Human Mind

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Because the mind is more than the brain, the brain of neuroscience and neurosurgery is a mindless brain that works like a radio or TV broadcasts news. It requires a mind to study and understand the brain.

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Is There Intelligent Design in Nature?

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bacterial-flagellumGerard M. Verschuuren, scientist, writer, speaker, and consultant, working at the interface of science, philosophy, and religion, explains the difference between intelligent design as a metaphysical concept and ‘ID’ as a scientific theory. He endorses the first, calling is ‘cosmic design’ and attributing it to God, the author of natural laws and creator of the world that is being investigated by natural sciences. He refutes ‘ID’ as a scientific theory which would lead to a ‘god of the gaps’. Nature, biological evolution includes, does not need the supernatural interventions to bring about complex structures. The metaphysical designer and his laws of nature, including natural selection, suffice.

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Thomas Aquinas versus Intelligent Design: a Catholic Answer

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thomasaquinas-670Michael W. Tkacz, associate professor of philosophy at Gonzaga University, recounts that one day, he received a phone call from a professor of philosophy at a nearby private, religiously affiliated college who had just returned from an international conference devoted to challenges to evolutionary biology from intelligent design (ID) theory. He had something of a complaint to make about the absence of ‘Thomists’ and ‘Catholics’ in the ID movement and its challenge to Darwinism. Since the time of Charles Darwin there has been vigorous debate between Christian creationists and Darwinian evolutionists. Neither side has been especially interested in what Catholic Thomism might contribute to the discussion. Secular Darwinians often view Thomists as just another species of literalists attempting to substitute the Book of Genesis for good biology. On the other hand, Protestant creationists often have viewed Thomists as already halfway to secularism and naturalism, depending too little on a literal reading of Scripture and too much on philosophical reasoning.

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Answering Atheism

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answeringnewatheismAre we able to answer the arguments of an atheist? In this interview, Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker discuss why and how they dismantle the underpinnings of Richard Dawkins’ atheistic agenda in Emmaus Road Publishing’s 2008 release, Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God. (Three video’s)

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Is Genesis to be understood figuratively?

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genesisDid the people written of in the book of Genesis really live to be 900 years old? Tim Staples explains what the Catholic Church teaches about this. Tim Staples is Director of Apologetics and Evangelization at Catholic Answers. He converted to Catholicism in 1988, after having been raised a Southern Baptist and a  youth minister in an Assembly of God community. Tim was in the Marine Corps for four years. He then followed six years in formation for the priesthood, earning a degree in philosophy. He then studied theology on a graduate level for two years. Realizing that his calling was not to the priesthood, Tim left the seminary in 1994 and has been working in Catholic apologetics and evangelization ever since.

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster and God

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster and GodAn acclaimed author, speaker and theologian, Robert Barron is a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire. He is the creator and host of the 10-part TV series Catholicism, and serves as the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein. He the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Lecture on ‘Evangelizing the Culture’ at Elmhurst College (Chicago – Illinois, USA), Wednesday, February 8. In this excerpt, Fr. Barron explains why christians – just as atheïsts – do not believe in flying spaghetti monsters, and what Christians mean by ‘God’. Click on ‘more’ to watch this video (9 minutes)

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