Ebook: Creation, Evolution and Meaning

Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I: Meaning and Creation; Chapter One: Meaning, Verification and Analogy; Section 1: Meaningful Communication, a Meaningful Life and Theories of Meaning; Section 2: The Verifcationist Challenge; Section 3: Some Implications of Verifcationism for Religious Language; Section 4: Ayer's Subsequent Stances; Section 5: Some Objections to Verificationism; Section 6: Creation and Analogy; Chapter Two: Realism, Anti-realism and Religion; Section 1: Realism and the Roots of Anti-realism;This book presents the case for belief in both creation and evolution at the same time as rejecting creationism. Issues of meaning supply the context of inquiry; the book defends the meaningfulness of language about God, and also relates belief in both creation and evolution to the meaning of life. Meaning, it claims, can be found in consciously adopting the role of stewards of the planetary biosphere, and thus of the fruits of creation. Distinctive features include a sustained case for a realist understanding of language about God; a contemporary defence of some of the arguments for belief in God and in creation; a sifting of different versions of Darwinism and their implications for religious belief; a Darwinian account of the relation of predation and other apparent evils to creation; a new presentation of the argument from the world's value to the purposiveness of evolution; and discussions of whether or not meaning itself evolves, and of religious and secular bases for belief in stewardship.