Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Signaling - Call for Papers

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 7 March 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5612, pp. 1523 - 1524
DOI: 10.1126/science.1082968
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Essays on Science and Society

Also see the archival list of the Essays on Science and Society.

PERCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE:
Is Evolution a Secular Religion?

Michael Ruse

The fact of evolution postulated by Charles Darwin in his Origin of Species was quickly embraced by the great thinkers of Victorian society, but its mechanism, natural selection, seemed to be less appealing. As Michael Ruse ponders in his essay, evolution seemed to have been adopted as a new secular religion, complete with commandments for how to progress to a better life and cathedrals of natural history housing valuable fossil relics.

The author is in the Department of Philosophy, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1500, USA. E-mail: mruse{at}mailer.fsu.edu

Read the Full Text


E-Letters:

Read all E-Letters

Teaching evolution as religion harms science
Denyse I. O'Leary
Science Online, 20 Mar 2003 [Full text]

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products