The Compatibility of Evolution and Design

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction: Paley’s Cosmic Temple and the Darwinian Critique

   • E. V. R. Kojonen

   Pages 1-12

3. Reclaiming the Biological Design Argument: A Preposterous and Dangerous Idea?

   • E. V. R. Kojonen

   Pages 13-57

4. From Teleological Arguments to Thought Experiments

   • E. V. R. Kojonen

   Pages 59-95

5. Not by Selection Alone: Evolutionary Explanations and Their Requirements

   • E. V. R. Kojonen

   Pages 97-143

6. Indirect Design and the Revelatory Potential of Biology

   • E. V. R. Kojonen

   Pages 145-204

7. Conclusion: From Teleology to Theology, and Back Again

   • E. V. R. Kojonen

   Pages 205-214

8. Back Matter

   Pages 215-223

   PDF

This book challenges the widespread assumption of the incompatibility of evolution and the biological design argument. Kojonen analyzes the traditional arguments for incompatibility, and argues for salvaging the idea of design in a way that is fully compatible with evolutionary biology. Relating current views to their intellectual history, Kojonen steers a course that avoids common pitfalls such as the problems of the God of the gaps, the problem of natural evil, and the traditional Humean and Darwinian critiques. The resulting deconstruction of the opposition between evolution and design has the potential to transform this important debate.

• Darwin
• Evolution
• Design
• Teleology
• Creation
• Theism

“Kojonen has produced an important book that should be read by all who are interested in the interplay between theology and evolutionary biology. There is much here to chew on.” (Robert F. Shedinger, ESSSAT News & Reviews, Vol. 31 (3), September 2021) ‘Rope Kojonen offer his readers an informed, nuanced, scholarly, cool, philosophically and scientifically current reflection on the question of what the concepts of ‘design’ and ‘purpose’ might mean within evolutionary theory. His approach is necessarily disarming, subtle and gently corrosive to all entrenched positions. No established point of view escapes unchallenged - as an example of how philosophical and theological thinking can spur imaginative progress in scientific reasoning, it is a welcome and important contribution.’

 

-          Tom McLeish, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics, University of York, UK

‘It shows considerable courage to re-invoke the term ‘design’ in relation to the theology of biology. The concept seemed tellingly dismissed by Richard Dawkins, and revived only in highly dubious form by intelligent design theorists. So Rope Kojonen deserves great credit for re-evaluating the idea of divine design in dialogue with the whole range of contemporary literature. This book will fill a gap in that literature, and should be of considerable help to teachers and students alike.’

-          Christopher Southgate, Professor of Christian Theodicy, University of Exeter, UK

 

‘A remarkably helpful and important intervention in the long-standing debates about arguments from design, natural theology, and the impact of evolutionary theory on Christian theology and apologetics. Kojonen's work enables a richer and fuller engagement with these important topics, while opening up fresh lines of discussion and exploration, especially in relation to how we should understand - and might also discern - design within the natural world.’

-          Alister E. McGrath, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, University of Oxford, UK

 

 

‘This book offers a well-researched, lucid, carefully argued, and well-balanced assessment of whether evolutionary theory is compatible with holding that biological teleology provides evidence of a Creator. It is an essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between science, philosophy, and religion.’

-          Andrew T. Loke, Associate Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

 

• University of Helsinki Faculty of Theology, Helsinki, Finland

  E. V. R. Kojonen

 E.V.R. Kojonen is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is also the author of The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism (2016).

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