Back to Darwin: The Scientific Case for Deistic Evolution

The author addresses the major points of disagreement between science and religion, so as to be able to obtain a unified view of the rise of life.
Contents: PREFACE: Creation vs. Evolution: The Modern Debate; The Deistic Roots of Modern Darwinsim. PART I: THE IMPLAUSIBILITY OF NON-THEISTIC EVOLUTION: Spontaneous Generation; Mutations; Species and Speciation; Natural Selection; God and the Nature of Perfection; The Fossil Record. PART II: DIRECTED EVOLUTION: Weak Orthogenesis, Opportunism, the Lamarckism; Evolution and the New Genetics; Self-Organization and the Prospect of Directed Evolution; On the Role of Natural Processes in the Creation. Part III: A THEOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS: The Reality and the Necessity of Evolution as a Cosmic Process; The Legitimacy of Moderate Anthropocentrism; The Morality of Evolution. PART IV: DEISTIC EVOLUTION AND MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY: Supernatural Naturalism; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

M.A. Corey received his Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate School, where he studied theology and the philosophical relationship between science and religion. He is the author of several books including God and the New Cosmology (UPA, 1993).