Creation without creationism: toward a theological critique of darwinism

Proponents of Darwinism regard it as a universal theory that can explain the origins and structure of all biological life and behavior, including society and human consciousness. However, the theory of natural selection as it was articulated by Darwin himself, and by subsequent generations of his adherents, has been exposed to wide critique both within the field of biology and without. This article examines the basic philosophical weakness of Darwinism from a Thomistic theological perspective. The author argues that Darwinism presupposes claims about causality and identity which its own supposedly mechanistic system cannot account for. Aspiring to the laws of Newtonian physics, Darwin sought to create a system of historical explanations that take their teleology from utilitarian economics. Thus while Darwinism pretends to be an objective form of deductive empiricism, at its heart it is social theory and axiology. Hence it cannot agnostically operate alongside Christianity, but must replace it with its own ethics of indifference to mass death and competition. The author shows that the natural theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, in contrast, can account for an intelligible creation. This is because creation is a beneficent gift of its Creator and is understood through a faith that recognizes the limits to understanding while also recognizing its participation in transcendent understanding. Darwinian polemicists and their Creationist opponents alike are reliant on the positioning of all that is real within nature and thus cannot account for its fundamental purpose or intelligibility. The publication is a translation of the article “Creation Without Creationism: Toward a Theological Critique of Darwinism” by Prof. Michael Hanby published in: Communio: International Catholic Review 30, no. 4 (Winter 2003), pp. 654-694. Translation and publication permissions are generously granted by author and publishers.