Selfish Genes and Christian Ethics

by Messer, Neil

• ISBN13: 9780334029960
• ISBN10: 0334029961
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-30
• Publisher: Scm Pr

Summary

The evolutionary origins of human beings, and in particular the origins of human morality, have long attracted debate and speculation, not only in the academic community but also in popular scientific literature and in society at large. Evolutionary accounts of human behaviour and morality have great imaginative power, with the attendant risk that they sometimes stray beyond the bounds of scientific theory to become powerful popular myths.

Author Biography

Dr Neil Messer is Senior Lecturer in Christian Theology and Director of the Centre for Contemporary and Pastoral Theology at the University of Wales, Lampeter

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Mapping the Territory	p. 19
Evolution and Ethics	p. 21
'Evolution and Ethics' in context	p. 22
The argument of 'Evolution and Ethics'	p. 27
The issues raised by 'Evolution and Ethics'	p. 32
Explanation	p. 32
Justification	p. 34
Content	p. 35
Moral capability and its limits	p. 36
Theodicy	p. 38
Redesigning ourselves and the world	p. 40
Redrawing the Map	p. 42
Evolutionary Ethics and the Command of God the Creator	p. 63
The 'Evolution of Ethics' and the Doctrine of Creation	p. 65
Introduction	p. 65
The 'evolution of ethics'	p. 65
Creation and evolution	p. 74
Human creatures	p. 79
Human being as moral being	p. 83
The 'Ethics of Evolution' and the Call of God	p. 97
The 'ethics of evolution'	p. 97
Spencer, Huxley and Moore	p. 97
Evolutionary ethics in recent debate	p. 99
'Is' and 'ought' revisited	p. 104
Altruism and the love of neighbour	p. 109
Freedom, Sin and Salvation	p. 131
Evolution, Freedom and Moral Failure	p. 133
A 'tenacious and powerful enemy'?	p. 133
A morally problematic inheritance?	p. 133
Male violence	p. 133
Maternal care and neglect of high-risk infants	p. 136
Debunking morality	p. 138
But are we 'good natured' after all?	p. 139
Evaluation	p. 140
Determinism, freedom and responsibility	p. 145
Determinisms: genetic, biological, environmental, social	p. 145
Is biology destiny?	p. 147
Is determinism compatible with freedom?	p. 151
Does 'ought' imply 'can'?	p. 156
Responding to moral failure	p. 158
Salvation and Sin (1): Holy Love and Original Sin	p. 163
Holy love and the 'cruciality of the cross'	p. 166
Pride, sloth and falsehood	p. 169
Humility and pride	p. 169
Exaltation and sloth	p. 174
The victor and the true witness	p. 178
Original sin	p. 184
Salvation and Sin (2): Theodicy and Hope	p. 196
The justification of God	p. 196
Transformed relationships and the redemption of our bodies	p. 203
Ultimate hope and penultimate responsibility	p. 207
The ultimate and the penultimate	p. 207
'Already' and 'Not yet'	p. 209
A cosmic and universal hope	p. 211
Working Out Our Own Salvation?	p. 216
Medicine, technology and the Baconian project	p. 216
Human genetic modification	p. 218
Human cloning and embryonic stem cell technology	p. 220
Genetically modified crops	p. 222
Technological projects and the Christian narrative	p. 226
Diagnostic questions	p. 229
Is the project good news to the poor?	p. 229
Is the project an attempt to be 'like God', or does it conform to the image of God?	p. 231
What attitude does the project embody towards the material world (including our own bodies)?	p. 233
What attitude does the project embody towards past failures?	p. 234
Assessing the projects	p. 235
Genetically modified crops	p. 235
Health	p. 237
Human cloning and stem cell technology	p. 238
Human genetic manipulation	p. 242
Conclusion	p. 246
Incorporating whatever is well-founded in the accounts on which reductionists draw	p. 246
Handling issues evidence with which reductionist views have difficulty	p. 247
Clarifying, challenging and reshaping moral concepts and experience	p. 248
Bibliography	p. 251
Index of Names and Subjects	p. 267
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.