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Science 7 March 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5612, pp. 1523 - 1524
DOI: 10.1126/science.1082968
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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

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E-Letters:

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

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)