Chance Or Purpose Creation, Evolution And A Rational Faith

The divine comedy Creationism

Running gags

Biblical literalism Young/Old Earth Intelligent design Creation scientists

Jokes aside

Carbon dating Geologic timeline Fossil record Grand Canyon

Blooper reel

Evolution: A Christian's Faith Bumblebee argument Frank Lewis Marsh Banana argument v - t - e

Great and terrible Books

On our shelf:

God: The Failed Hypothesis The Turner Diaries Unscientific America The Men Who Stare at Goats Letter to a Christian Nation The Delusion of Disbelief The Golden Bough The Secret Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False Catch-22 Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions Stephenie Meyer v - t - e

Chance or Purpose? Creation, Evolution and a Rational Faith is a Christian theistic evolution book, written in 2007 by one Christoph Schönborn — an Austrian cardinal of the Catholic Church.

The main claim of the book is that science is "incomplete" without woo spirituality, and that specifically the Christian God (out of all potential deities) is somehow guiding all natural processes.^[1][2]

Overview[edit]

In his book, Schönborn accepts evidence for evolution and common descent and claims that these scientific theories are compatible with Catholic belief. So far, so good.

Beyond that the troubles begin, however. Schönborn denies the "neo-Darwinian" interpretation of evolution, seeing evolution not as a random process, but as a directed one.^{[notes 1]}

While Schönborn claims that his views do not conflict with the theory of evolution, his arguments essentially parallel those of your standard IDiot — most notably in his attempts to replace natural processes (read: scientific theories that actually have explanatory power) with "God".^[3][4]

Reception[edit]

Schönborn is not only not a scientist, but indeed a faithful theologian.

As such, the book has been described not as a scientific, but a religious book — marketed towards Catholics who want to buy the conclusion that their Christianity still makes sense, whilst also (most wisely) accepting evolution.^[5]

See also[edit]

• Random Designer: Created from Chaos to Connect with the Creator
• Can You Believe in God and Evolution?: A Guide for the Perplexed
• Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution

Notes[edit]

References[edit]