Darwin, God, and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew

Under contract with Cambridge University Press

Can someone who accepts that we evolved continue to believe in God? Or does the suffering entailed by natural selection imply that there could be no God? Are human beings superior to the animals? Or is this just something we like to tell ourselves? Have we overvalued human life and undervalued the lives of (other) animals? What is the purpose of life? Does evolution imply that life has no ultimate purpose? Does evolution tell us what is morally right and wrong? Does evolution imply that, in the end, nothing is right or wrong? In Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life, I address these and other questions raised by Darwin’s theory. I argue that evolution supports a view of a godless universe, devoid of ultimate purpose or moral structure… but that we can live a good life and a happy life even within the confines of such a view.

CONTENTS

Ch 1: Darwin and the Big Questions

Part I: Darwin Gets Religion
Ch 2: Clash of the Titans
Ch 3: Darwin’s God
Ch 4: God as Gap Filler
Ch 5: Darwin and the Problem of Evil
Ch 6: Wrapping up Religion

Part II: Life after Darwin
Ch 7: Human Beings and their Place in Nature
Ch 8: The Status of Human Beings among the Animals
Ch 9: Meaning of Life, R.I.P.?

Part III: Morality Stripped of Superstition
Ch 10: Evolving Good
Ch 11: Remaking Morality
Ch 12: Uprooting the Doctrine of Human Dignity
Ch 13: Evolution and the Death of Right and Wrong

Appendix A: Darwin's Dangerous Idea
Appendix B: Evidence for Evolution