Description

• Title:
  Natural Selection, Scarcity and Evil:: Reflections on the Fittingness of Evolution as a Divine Instrument of Creation
• Creator:
  Wahlberg, Mats
• Description:
  It is often claimed that our knowledge of the evolutionary process adds an extra dimension to the classical problem of natural evil and makes this problem worse. Especially the principle of natural selection is often portrayed as morally inappropriate or “unfitting” for a perfectly good God to use as a means for creating biological complexity. In this article, I argue that this common view is misconceived, and that natural selection is a wholly innocuous principle. The real source of evolutionary evils is the fact that resources in nature are scarce – a fact that was known long before Darwin. The problem of natural and evolutionary evil, therefore, is best construed as a question about why God permits scarcity in nature. I argue that recent research about the interrelation between competition and cooperation in the evolutionary process provides resources for answering this perennial question in a more satisfactory way than could be done before the advent of evolutionary theory.  
• Object availability:
  free access
• Rights:
  Prawa autorskie (c) 2024 Mats;
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
• Date:
  2024.04.09
• Type:
  info:eu-repo/semantics/article;
  info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
• Language:
  English
• Source:
  Scientia et Fides; Vol. 12 No. 1 (2024): The Dynamic Theodicy Model: Understanding God, Evil, and Evolution; 107-118;
  Scientia et Fides; Tom 12 Nr 1 (2024): The Dynamic Theodicy Model: understanding God, Evil and Evolution; 107-118;
  2353-5636;
  2300-7648
• Format:
  application/pdf
• Publisher:
  Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu
• Relation: https://apcz.umk.pl/SetF/article/view/44585/38246
• Subject:
  evolutionary theodicy;
  natural evil;
  natural cooperation;
  Thomas Aquinas
• Identifier: https://apcz.umk.pl/SetF/article/view/44585
• Data provider:
  Akademicka Platforma Czasopism
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  text