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Chance or Purpose? Creation, Evolution and a Rational Faith
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Average Rating:  out of 20 Reviews
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Price: $19.95
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Sale: $11.96
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Manufacturer: Ignatius Press
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EAN (European Article Number): 9781586172121
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn
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Publisher: Ignatius Press
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Dewey Decimal Number: 231.7652
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Publication Date: 2007-10-25
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Reading Level: 200
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Description: Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn's article on evolution and creation in The New York Times launched an international controversy. Critics charged him with biblical literalism and "creationism". In this book, Cardinal Schoenborn responds to his critics by tackling the hard questions with a carefully reasoned the "theology of creation". Can we still speak intelligently of the world as "creation" and affirm the existence of the Creator, or is God a "delusion"? How should an informed believer read Genesis? If God exists, why is there so much injustice and suffering? Are human beings a part of nature or elevated above it? What is man's destiny? Is everything a matter of chance or can we discern purpose in human existence? In his treatment of evolution, Cardinal Schoenborn distinguishes the biological theory from "evolutionism", the ideology that tries to reduce all of reality to mindless, meaningless processes. He argues that science and a rationally grounded faith are not at odds and that what many people represent as "science" is really a set of philosophical positions that will not withstand critical scrutiny. Chance or Purpose? directly raises the philosophical and theological issues many scientists today overlook or ignore. The result is a vigorous, frank dialogue that acknowledges the respective insights of the philosopher, the theologian and the scientist, but which calls on them to listen and to learn from each another.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: The Beauty of His Catholic Faith |
Date: 2008-07-21 |
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Details: This book most accurately presents the truth to the best of what has been revealed by his Son and I know of No man who would not enjoy the beauty of this book setting things in right proportion for both the scientist and the religious. Amen. St Ignatius of antioch on his way to Rome to be martyred for being a christian in 108 AD, proclaimed the beuaty of the faith for the first time calling the Church Catholic. Universal, One truth for all, not all truths are one(relativism was never preached by Christ). As a convert, I challenge those fallen away from the Church Christ established(Mt 16:18-19) to consider returning, the fullness is here. Never Trust yourselves, but only him, How Great is his Mercy. Peace be with you. |
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Review Summary: Very Good |
Date: 2008-07-12 |
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Details: This book was a very straight forward and insightful
approach to a complex subject. Several significant points were made
that I had not thought of and these points allowed
me to re-think my positon. |
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Review Summary: Clear statement of the Catholic position but not otherwise a contribution to debate |
Date: 2008-07-05 |
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Details: In part, a well written account of intellectual Catholic belief on matters loosely related to the scientific theory of evolution, and a fairly convincing argument that traditional Catholic doctrine is not contradictory to the strictly biological theory. In somewhat larger part, the author takes issue with "evolutionism", the idea that "the interplay of chance and necessity" that drives evolution is all there is to say about the subject of human origins, and takes issue with the idea that "man is just another evolved animal", ideas that are manifestly opposite to Christian belief.
As a statement of traditional Catholic belief the book is just fine. But it simply doesn't address what I would consider the central issue in the evolution vs creationist debate: granted the physical laws of the universe and the state of the Earth some four billion years ago, is it logically possible and reasonable that the complexity of life could have arisen by the operation of physical laws alone? This is what most scientists implicitly believe, what those like Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design explicitly seek to demonstrate, and what a small minority like the author of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution explicitly disagree with. But on this issue author abandons his otherwise sophisticated nuanced theology in favor of occasional statements like the following, without attempting to develop an argument.
It is entirely rational to assume that there is a significance to the development of nature .... Reason tells me there is an order and a plan, meaning and purpose, that clock has not come into being by chance, and far less still the living organism of a plant, an animal, or indeed a human being.
Anyone who wants to replace the Creator in the realization of this plan by a complete autonomy of evolution either attributes a mythical creative power to evolution itself, or renounces any attempt whatever at rational comprehension by explaining everything as the blind interplay of arbitrary chances ..... |
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Review Summary: Clarity for the non-scientifcally trained. |
Date: 2008-05-15 |
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Details: We are, at the present time, moving away from a view that science, for all its marvelous accomplishments, can replace religion as "Progress". It certainly has not happened, and now we live on the edge of chaos. This work offers a highly readable presentation of how and why we arrived at this point, and how and why we need to move beyond it. Religion and Science, when both seek truth, can never be at odds. Just consider what Science has done, for example, to validate the Shroud of Turin, and that includes some of the best men at NASA. |
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Review Summary: Beautifully Written Synthesis of Faith Based Creation and Scientific Evolution |
Date: 2008-05-10 |
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Details: The misconception within society that Faith and Science are incompatible is properly and brilliantly refuted in Cardinal Schonborn's masterwork: CHANCE OR PURPOSE: CREATION, EVOLUTION AND A RATIONAL FAITH. In a clear, simple, yet highly intellectual style, the author firmly, yet convincingly expresses the Catholic doctrine of Creation -- a view that is, upon close examination, completely compatible of an ongoing and orderly development of the universe.
Schonborn's explanations of Creation is rooted squarely in Sacred Scripture, yet the poetic expressions of Genesis are placed in proper context. Creation is seen not as something that occurred only in the origin of things, but as an essential part of the development of life: past, present, and future. Evolution is not something at odds with Creation; rather it is the expression of God's creative will -- the development of temporal things measured against the eternity of the kingdom.
Those within the scientific community who do not believe in God, and thus deny the reality of their own senses and intellect -- instead elevating the principles of limited human understanding to a diety of their own making -- will undoubtedly eschew the author's carefully developed theological arguments. Yet in the end, Schonborn wins the day: his work neither contradicts science, nor is limited by the limitations imposed by secular adherents.
For those who wish a comprehensive explanation of Creation -- consistent with both faith and science, this work is seminal to further exploration of the understanding of the ultimate beginnings. |
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