The Theory Of Evolution And Philosophy Of Science

In Chapter 28 of DeWitt’s book, Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science, DeWitt builds on his previous discussion of what the theory of evolution is and the historical developments that were discovered during that time, by introducing the implications that arise with the theory. The two main implications that are discussed in this chapter are implications due to religious beliefs and morality and ethics. However, these two particular implications are not the only ones that arise with the theory of evolution, in fact there are a lot of implications involved with this theory.

During the Aristotelian era, God or gods played a huge part in understanding the movement of the heavenly bodies and other life processes. However, by the 1600’s, many scientists created new theories and hypothesis’s about how the world works. The observations and data collected from the experiments did not coincide with the belief that a God or gods needed in order to back up scientific findings. The experiments actually do the opposite and explain the world in natural terms. Darwin and Wallace’s theory of evolution was first theory that had bunches of empirical evidence to back up the theory. All of the empirical evidence poses a lot of different arguments depending on one’s religious beliefs.

Many scholars discussed in the chapter, do not believe that evolution and religion cannot go hand-in-hand. It is believed that if God plays a role in evolution, then it is no longer a process of natural selection. Another point that the scholars agree on in the chapter is the fact that humans cannot be viewed as products of evolution. DeWitt gives an example in his book when he looks at the extinction dinosaurs and how the asteroid impact...

... middle of paper ...

...er for the readers to understand the issues that arise with metaethics and evolution. DeWitt also mentions how trust and ultimatums play a role in metaethics. When looking at evolution and normative ethics, DeWitt looks at traditional arguments that have occurred with the theory of evolution. Naturalistic fallacy gives the best reason why evolutionary considerations cannot be related to normative ethics. DeWitt then goes into looking at the two different groups who either support or are against the evolutionary theory and look at who the two of them relate to normative ethics. If one tends to side with the scholars that don’t believe God and evolution can mix, then this person is giving up on the normative ethics. However, if a person sides with Haught and similar scholars, they are to believe that our morality is what makes up the universe and allows it to thrive.