In his book Galileo, Darwin, and Hawking: The Interplay of Science, Reason, and Religion, Phil Dowe expresses his belief that science, religion and reason can all coexist and interact harmoniously. He discusses several topics that propose conflict between religion, reason and science and attempts to find a middle ground where interaction between these areas of study can occur. One of the topics Dowe addresses is the struggle between creation and evolution. He argues that belief in the theory of evolution does not necessarily preclude any belief in the teachings of the Bible. He presents an interesting argument which will be analyzed in this paper.
In presenting his argument, Dowe begins with Aristotle's teleological view of science. According to Aristotle everything should be viewed in terms of its purpose which is most often intrinsic. Thomas Aquinas took Aristotle's ideology a step further by proposing that not only does everything have a purpose, but its purpose was bestowed upon it by God. Dowe goes on to point out that even in Newton's mechanical explanations of physics there was room left for the discussion of design. "For Newton the purely mechanical operation of the solar system is so beautifully intricate and ordered that it simply could not have come about by chance. It must, therefore, have been the product of a mathematically minded designer" (108).
Next Dowe introduces William Paley's argument of the watchmaker. Like Newton, Paley believed that so many things in this world were intricate and complex that a designer must be behind it. Dowe goes on to spend the remainder of this chapter discussing Darwin's theory of natural selection and evolution. He also includes Asa Gray's defense of Darwin's theory. According to Gray believing in natural selection does not automatically make an individual, or Darwin in particular, an atheist. He proposed the possibility that natural selection was part of God's design all along. This once again allows for discussion of science and religion.
Dowe's main premise in this chapter is that in each argument against creation there is room left to discuss the idea of intelligent design or theistic evolution. He believes that the reason that creation should not be ruled out is because none of the arguments are strong enough to hold up against creation. According to Dowe, all theories discussed are an inference to the best explanation. For example with Darwin's theory, "the probability of the range of biological evidence (E) given the theory of natural selection (H1) is greater than the probability of that evidence given in natural selection (H2)" (119). Since this is the case, creation cannot be fully ruled out and as such discussion and interaction between creation and evolution can occur.
Dowe makes several important points in his argument for interaction between religion and science. One definite strength in his argument is the fact that he traced this topic back in history. This shows that there are individuals throughout history that have discussed and debated this topic thus making it more legitimate. He makes it very clear that each individual he wrote about did not completely dismiss the idea of a designer. Using several different examples he showed that individuals throughout history have been consistent in making connections between science and religion. He also made it clear that Darwin's theory was not a definite answer but rather the most likely and thus creation could not be ruled out completely. If his purpose was to show that religion and science can somehow interact he succeeded.
While Dowe presents a convincing argument there are several key factors to take into consideration when reading his work. First and foremost is the fact that he has a very clear bias. As such he specifically picked examples and individuals who would support his argument. Furthermore the title of this chapter implied that the topic at hand would be creation rather than intelligent design. While he stated that creation cannot be definitively ruled out, he did not provide an argument in support of it. Instead he chose to focus on the idea of a designer rather than the creation stories from the Bible. Overall his was a good argument but it is important have a critical mind when deciding who or what to believe.
In Dowe's discussion of creation and evolution he managed to find ways in which interaction of religion and science could occur. While he had some weaknesses in his argument he managed to succeed in his initial goal. Dowe showed that there could be discussion among people in dealing with the idea of evolution.
