REVIEW PUBLISHED IN ITEST (INSTITUTE FOR THEOLOGICAL ENCOUNTER WITH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY) BULLETIN WINTER 2003, Vol: 34, No. 1, p. 16. Reprinted with permission. Reviewer: Peter A. Pagan Aquiar, Department of Philosophy, Wheeling Jesuit University (review of first edition) Dr. Pagan is now a member of the Department of Philosophy, Aquinas College (Nashville, TN)
REVIEW OF ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
Origin
of the Human Species. By Dennis Bonnette. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi,
2001. xv + 202 pp. $38.00. (out-of-print edition) Second Edition:
Sapientia Press: $16.95.
Last year PBS aired a mini-series
titled Evolution. The first two-hour segment, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea,”
provides a sympathetic portrayal of the life and thought of Charles
Darwin, who is often regarded (incorrectly) as the father of
evolutionary theory, while the seventh and final segment, “What About
God?” explores the apparent conflict between evolutionary science and
the biblical doctrine of creation as understood by religious
fundamentalists. Evolution was initially aired almost five years after
Pope John Paul II’s 1996 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
on the question of evolution. Not a few viewed this pontifical address
as a belated but inevitable recognition of the validity of Darwin’s
theory.
Neither Evolution nor the preceding interpretation of
the 1996 address would lead one to suspect that the question of human
evolution is substantially more complicated than it appears to biblical
fundamentalists or to the champions of philosophical naturalism. A
careful reading of the Pope’s 1996 address reveals, among other things,
that the Catholic Church’s magisterium does not endorse Darwinian
evolutionary theory. Avoiding the rather common mistake of equating
evolutionary theory with Darwinism broadly construed (e.g., Evolution),
the Pope distinguishes between various theories of evolution and
unequivocally rejects evolutionary theories based on philosophical
materialism.
Given the availability of a veritable host of
books and articles devoted to the history and ideas of Darwin and his
followers, selecting a few essential texts in this growing field of
inquiry is not a simple task. Those seeking a popular but judicious
assessment of Darwin’s theory of evolution can hardly do better than to
obtain George Sim Johnston’s Did Darwin Get It Right? Those interested
in a more advanced philosophical treatment of evolutionary theory,
especially as it touches on theological matters, will be delighted by
Professor Dennis Bonnette’s Origin of the Human Species.
Employing
the tools of logic, epistemology and metaphysics, Bonnette provides a
systematic analysis of the delicate problem of inter-specific evolution,
especially with respect to the advent of rational animals—mankind. In
addition to a balanced critical summary of the debate between Darwinian
evolutionists and scientific creationists, his analysis includes an
illuminating examination of the different ways the term “species” is
employed in scientific and philosophical discourse. One of the key
strengths of this historically sensitive study is that it preserves the
critical line of demarcation between empirical science and metaphysics, a
line neglected too often by Darwinists and their creationist opponents.
Lacking an adequate grasp of the important distinction between material
being and being per se, Darwinists (e.g., Richard Dawkins) are prone to
subordinate metaphysics to experimental science, to transform modern
science into a metaphysical research programme as they strive to
eliminate any reference to divine causality from every rational
explanation of cosmic phenomena. A related temptation afflicts various
creationists that strive to demonstrate the existence of an intelligent
cosmic architect on the sole basis of natural science by extending
science’s proper methodological boundaries. What both of the foregoing
camps have in common is a misguided tendency to render to natural
science more credit than it can properly claim. In such cases God is
reduced, at best, to an extremely powerful but finite secondary cause.
Bonnette’s approach, in contrast, steers clear of such deformed
conceptions of the uncaused first cause.
Without detracting
from the rational weight and authority of divine revelation, Bonnette’s
interdisciplinary study affirms the invaluable contribution of
experimental science in man’s quest for knowledge. Bonnette’s deep
respect for the distinct methods and principles of experimental science
and revealed theology enables him to reach some fascinating speculative
conclusions, conclusions that challenge the convictions of those
committed to simplistic biblical exegesis or to the narrow purview of
scientism. For instance, one could point to his probing discussion of
Adam and Eve’s origin and the question of monogenism vs. polygenism.
There Bonnette defends the position that coherent evolutionary theory
need not contradict a monogenetic conception of human origins if the
deliverances of legitimate science and divine revelation are not
misconstrued. And the nuanced reconciliation advanced by Bonnette, which
avoids the anti-realist drawbacks of Stephen J. Gould’s proposed NOMA
(non-overlapping magisteria) principle, does not violate the autonomy of
either natural science or revealed theology. Bonnette’s study lends
credible support to the claim that modern science poses no genuine
threat to religious orthodoxy and that such orthodoxy promotes rather
than inhibits rigorous and fruitful scientific exploration.
In
sum, it would be no exaggeration to claim that Origin of the Human
Species is an extraordinarily erudite addition to the scholarly
literature on evolutionary theory vis-à-vis the mystery of human
existence.