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Some questions

I would direct these toward one who thinks of evolution as leading away from theism.

Isn't evolution beautiful?
Isn't beauty good?
and
Isn't the source of that goodness likewise good?

Comments

Unknown said…
Actually, I would argue that evolution is not beautiful. It requires death and extinction in order to work. Or, for example, is a scorpion beautiful?
1:26 PM
Leo White said…
Okay, then try this one: evolution is part of a whole that is beautiful. Beautiful wholes can have parts that, in abstraction, seem ugly, even while the whole seems beautiful. For what it's worth, that's what Augustine argues when discussing the problem of evil.
11:24 PM
Unknown said…
I agree that an ugly part does not an ugly whole make. But it's critical that beauty does not require ugliness. In the case of evolution, the ugliness is necessary.
11:15 PM
Leo White said…
That's fine. But the very existence of the material living beings--with or without evolution--requires ugliness too, says Augustine. In other words, for him, the existence of animal pain/death is not necessarily a result of sin.
6:40 AM
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