Is Nature Ever Evil?: Religion, Science and Value

by Drees,Willem B.

• ISBN13: 9780415290616
• ISBN10: 0415290619
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-12-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Can one call nature 'evil'? Or is life a matter of eating and being eaten, where value judgments should not be applied? Is nature beautiful? Or is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Scientists often pretend that their disciplines only describe and analyze natural processes in factual terms, without making evaluative statements regarding reality. However, scientists may also be driven by the beauty of that which they study. Or they may be appalled by suffering they encounter, and look for technical or medical means 'to improve nature'. Outside of the scientific community, value judgments are even more common. Humans evaluate nature and natural processes in moral, aesthetic and religious terms as cruel, beautiful, hopeful or meaningless. Is nature ultimately good, with all suffering and evil justified in the context of the larger evolutionary process? Or is nature to be improved, via culture or technology, as it is considered less adequate than it could be? In this book, some major scientists, theologians, andphilosophers discuss these issues. As a study on the relations between religion and science, this is unique in emphasizing the evaluation of nature, rather than treating religion and science as competing or complementary casual explanations.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix
Notes on contributors	xi
This vale of tears - the best of all possible worlds?	1	(8)
Willem B. Drees
Part I Nature, science and value	9	(56)
Criticizing the cosmos	11	(16)
Mary Midgley
Response to Mary Midgley's `Criticizing the cosmos'	27	(2)
Silvia Volker
Mary Midgley on science, nature, metaphysics and ethics: some comments	29	(3)
Hans Radder
Mind and value: reflections on Max Weber	32	(9)
Joachim Leilich
The moral relevance of naturalness	41	(4)
Tatjana Visak
The experience of nature: a hermeneutic approach	45	(11)
Angela Roothaan
Human interpretation and animal excellence	56	(9)
Peter Schers
Part II Evil evolutionary justified?	65	(82)
Naturalizing and systematizing evil	67	(20)
Holmes Rolston, III
Cooperation or competition: comments on Rolston	87	(3)
Jacobus J. De Vries
Rolston: a contemporary physico-theologian	90	(4)
Jozef Keulartz
Are catastrophes in nature ever evil?	94	(4)
Jan Smit
Contingency and risk: comment on Smit	98	(3)
Arthur C. Petersen
Nature does not care indeed, but humans do: a commentary	101	(5)
Fred Spier
The Lisbon earthquake, 1755: a discourse about the `nature' of nature	106	(14)
Claudia Sanides-Kohlrausch
Tragedy versus hope: what future in an open universe?	120	(12)
Arnold Benz
Tragedy versus hope? A theological response	132	(7)
Eduardo R. Cruz
Cosmic fine-tuning, `many universe' theories and the goodness of life	139	(8)
Neil A. Manson
Part III Improving nature via culture and technology?	147	(98)
Improvable Nature?	149	(21)
John Hedley Brooke
Victims of nature cry out	170	(3)
Leo P. Ten Kate
`Improvable nature?' Some meta-historical reflections	173	(6)
Henk G. Geertsema
Is nature neutral? The concept of health	179	(10)
Kris Dierickx
Nature good and evil: a theological palette	189	(14)
Philip Hefner
Nature good and evil: a theological evaluation	203	(11)
Wessel Stoker
The quest for perfection: insights from Paul Tillich	214	(11)
Eduardo R. Cruz
Normativity of nature: natural law in a technological life-world	225	(11)
Mathew Illathuparampil
Exploring technonature with cyborgs	236	(9)
Anne Kull
Part IV Values as explanation or values explained?	245	(91)
Two forms of explanation	247	(18)
Keith Ward
Two forms of explanation: a response to Ward	265	(5)
Martien E. Brinkman
Two forms of explanation: a response to Ward	270	(4)
Ronald Meester
The evaluation of natural reality: a watertight case?	274	(10)
Edwin Koster
`Ought' in a world that just `is'	284	(26)
Lindon B. Eaves
What values guide our oughts?	310	(3)
Angela Roothaan
The normative relevance of disputes in primatology	313	(8)
Tatjana Visak
Evolutionary views on the biological basis of religion	321	(9)
Nico M. Van Straalen
Jair Stein
On pattern recognition, evolution, epistemology, religion and evil	330	(6)
Mladen Turk
Index	336