Evolution and Faith: What is at Stake

Sponsored by the University of St. Thomas Center for Faith and Culture and the Doherty Library at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in conjunction with Darwin2009 Houston.

Darwin challenges religious trust in a providential God who purposefully creates, influences and eternally cares for the world. Our religious ancestors did not have our knowledge of biological evolution, though they were certainly aware of the suffering of humans and other living beings. Darwinian science, however, vastly extends the story of life's suffering – and creativity as well – beyond that of traditional theological awareness. In what sense, then, after Darwin, might we still trust in divine providence, if at all? Is it perhaps possible that evolutionary portraits of life may open up fresh ways of thinking about God and cosmic purpose? After Darwin can we have a plausible understanding of God that is both consistent with traditional belief and adequate to the reality of evolution?

Dr. John F. Haught is Senior Fellow of Science & Religion at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center.  His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, ecology and religion.  He is the author of God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution and numerous other publications.