"Finding Darwin's God" by Kenneth Miller is an impressive work that clearly supports the idea that science and faith are, in fact, mutually supportive (each benefiting the other). He does an especially good job at laying out (in lay terms) the radioactive dating methods and geological data that support the modern scientific estimate of the earth's age. The treatment of biological understanding of species differentiation was done well (he is well respected biologist). He has a burden for those faithful who find natural selection and evolution to be a disturbing contradiction. It is a refreshing work that recognizes the need for God's creation to provide us with a genuine choice about the purpose of life and specifically our lives.
It was surprising nugget of information to read about a series of Schrodinger lectures in Dublin in 1943. The lectures detailed ideas about how modern quantum physics and developing chemistry could explain cellular processes and biological systems. Schrodinger speculated that populations of atoms that would make up biological information and transcription systems would compensate for the individual quantum variation (providing reliability and certainty). How quantum uncertainty plays out in biological systems helps explain the forces that drive the process of natural selection and, in the end, evolution.
The text is full of great quotes but the one I think captures the theme of the book (and follows a detailing of how quantum uncertainty drives biological variation): "Things look diffferent today. Darwin's vision has expanded to encompass a new world of biology in which the links to molecule to cell to organism are becoming clear. Eveolution prevails, but it prevails with a richness and subtlety its originator may have found surprising".
It was surprising nugget of information to read about a series of Schrodinger lectures in Dublin in 1943. The lectures detailed ideas about how modern quantum physics and developing chemistry could explain cellular processes and biological systems. Schrodinger speculated that populations of atoms that would make up biological information and transcription systems would compensate for the individual quantum variation (providing reliability and certainty). How quantum uncertainty plays out in biological systems helps explain the forces that drive the process of natural selection and, in the end, evolution.
The text is full of great quotes but the one I think captures the theme of the book (and follows a detailing of how quantum uncertainty drives biological variation): "Things look diffferent today. Darwin's vision has expanded to encompass a new world of biology in which the links to molecule to cell to organism are becoming clear. Eveolution prevails, but it prevails with a richness and subtlety its originator may have found surprising".
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Please note that the views expressed here by me do not represent the views of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, Archdiocese of Mobile or any part of the Universal Catholic Church.
