Monday, April 06, 2009
Dr Conor Cunnigham on Darwin and God
In this fascinating Nottingham University podcast theistic evolutionist Dr Conor Cunningham, of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Nottingham University, discusses his recent (and in my opinion generally very good) TV documentary on Darwin and God.
Dr Conor makes some excellent criticisms of the 'selfish gene' theory, and its sociological spin off, namely 'meme' theory. He castigates Richard Dawkins for his 'amature, cod philosophy.'
He also does a nice job debunking urban myths about belief in a flat earth and the Copernican revolution.
Conor's TV documentary unfortunately mentioned ID only once, to confuse it with creationism, and did not include any ID proponents, despite discussing the problem of 'convergence' for standard Darwinian theory. Of course, I disagree with Conor on the issue of ID, which he sees as a 'heresy'! (I didn't think his stated reason for this conclusion held water. He basically said in the documentary that if one believed in a God who acted within nature, what could one do with the problem of evil? But of course, any orthodox Christian must believe in an interventionist God, at least so far as revelation goes - i.e. regarding Jesus' incarnation, miracles, resurrection, etc. - and so this question already arises for any orthodox believer. Hence theistically interpreted ID doesn't raise a new question for theology.) Nevertheless, I agree with Dr Conor in rejecting both ultra-darwinism and creationism.
Dr Conor makes some excellent criticisms of the 'selfish gene' theory, and its sociological spin off, namely 'meme' theory. He castigates Richard Dawkins for his 'amature, cod philosophy.'
He also does a nice job debunking urban myths about belief in a flat earth and the Copernican revolution.
Conor's TV documentary unfortunately mentioned ID only once, to confuse it with creationism, and did not include any ID proponents, despite discussing the problem of 'convergence' for standard Darwinian theory. Of course, I disagree with Conor on the issue of ID, which he sees as a 'heresy'! (I didn't think his stated reason for this conclusion held water. He basically said in the documentary that if one believed in a God who acted within nature, what could one do with the problem of evil? But of course, any orthodox Christian must believe in an interventionist God, at least so far as revelation goes - i.e. regarding Jesus' incarnation, miracles, resurrection, etc. - and so this question already arises for any orthodox believer. Hence theistically interpreted ID doesn't raise a new question for theology.) Nevertheless, I agree with Dr Conor in rejecting both ultra-darwinism and creationism.
