John Hedley Brooke, Human Nature and Belief

Summary: On no area of human concern has Darwins impact been as keenly felt as on matters of religion. Here I shall not dwell on popular constructions of conflict between creation and evolution, which are often simplistic, but rather consider reasons why religious affiliation and practice continue to survive, despite the intellectual challenge of Darwinism. I shall suggest that through affirmative, creative responses to Darwins ideas, as well as resistance to them, religious thinkers have sustained their positions.

Two thinkers, deeply affected by Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley and William James, provide additional insights into the survival of a religious sensibility. Despite his denunciation of dogmatic theology, Huxley regarded the notional antagonism between science and religion as a contrivance on the part of short-sighted religious people and equally myopic scientists. More dramatically, James contended that in a Darwinian universe it is the religious who are best fitted to survive: every sort of energy and endurance, of courage and capacity for handling lifes evils, is set free in those who have religious faith.

Do our attempts to give a naturalistic evolutionary account of the origins of religion result in making religion so natural that it inexorably survives?

John Hedley Brooke, Human Nature and Belief, Wed 8 July