Evolutionary Biology Book Review

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Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist is written by Joan Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist and Christian. The purpose of this book is how to understand the conflict between science and Christian faith. Roughgarden wants to explain what evolutionary biology is and is not as well as what the Bible says. She believes that there is a relationship between the Bible and evolutionary biology and she investigates this relationship. The first few chapters discuss facts of evolutionary biology, the middle chapters present the explanation of those facts by evolutionary biology, and the last chapters focus on the limitations to evolutionary biology. She clarifies what is established in evolutionary biology and indicates …show more content…
The tree of life is much different from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, in Genesis, not much is continued about the tree of life and the focus is on the tree of knowledge. Chapter two in Roughgraden’s book continued with the idea of the single tree of life. I wanted to focus solely on the tree of life and chapter two inspired how I would look at this tree. The idea that all life is related and all creation is a part of one huge family tree is intriguing. Roughgarden inspired the idea that the branches of this tree are different branches of creation. Some branches are plants, others are animals, and so on, but that each branch is connected to the trunk of the tree and then the roots. All life belongs to one …show more content…
In the first letter he teaches that through Holy Communion Christians become one in body. The same is for baptism. He continues to explain that the body has many parts and no part can be thrown out. Paul’s teachings and evolutionary biology are related. Each part of the body, the branches, is different from one another yet connected. All life belongs to one body and all life is united in one single tree of life. The evolution of species is God’s design of nature unfolding. Species of living things and nonliving things are separate, because only species of living things change. There is nothing that prevents evolution of a species in Genesis. Genesis also does not mention whether or not the plants and animals God placed on the earth are related to one another. In biological evolution the key fact is that all life is related and species change through time. Species evolve because they breed and if a species is all the same to start with, it will not change. Neo-Darwinists believe genetic variations come from

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