Genetics Footnote

See Ward, In Defence of the Soul 46-47.

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	[1] Does Evolution ‘do the work of a friend’ for the Christian Religion?
	Setting the scene - why focus on providence?
	[2] Supposed challenges from the evolutionary sciences to theology
	Intellectually fulfilled atheists?
	A challenge to human uniqueness and status?
	A challenge to purpose in creation?
	A threat to the veracity of scripture?
	Evolution ‘explains away’ theology?
	A challenge to Christian morality?
	The challenges in wider context - Darwin as a scapegoat?
	[3] The current state of the evolutionary sciences
	Different ways of conceptualising Darwinian evolution
	Evolution as chance and necessity
	Evolution as an algorithm
	Evolution as movement within a ‘fitness landscape’
	Ongoing debates: contingency versus convergence
	Ongoing debates: what are the key causal factors in biological history?
	Ongoing debates: the environment as the principle cause?
	Ongoing debates: convergence as the principle cause?
	Ongoing debates: ‘Universal biology’ as the principle cause?
	The importance of moving from evolution as abstraction to particular history
	Ongoing debates: directionality and progress
	Ongoing debates: the origin of life
	Different levels and kinds of selection?
	[4] Responses from theology
	Evolution, probabilities and providence
	Holmes Rolston III
	Keith Ward
	John Haught
	Arthur Peacocke
	An increased role for general providence?
	Theology of Creation in the light of evolution: three scenarios
	[5] Concluding remarks
	Sources