ABSTRACT

According to a profile in The Guardian, Mary Midgley is 'the foremost scourge of scientific pretensions in this country; someone whose wit is admired even by those who feel she sometimes oversteps the mark'. Considered one of Britain's finest philosophers, Midgley exposes the illogical logic of poor doctrines that shelter themselves behind the prestige of science. Always at home when taking on the high priests of evolutionary theory - Dawkins, Wilson and their acolytes - she has famously described evolution as 'the creation-myth of our age'. In Evolution as a Religion, she examines how science comes to be used as a substitute for religion and points out how badly that role distorts it. As ever, her argument is flawlessly insightful: a punchy, compelling, lively indictment of these misuses of science. Both the book and its author are true classics of our time.

chapter 1|10 pages

Evolutionary dramas

chapter 2|10 pages

Do science and religion compete?

chapter 3|10 pages

Demarcation disputes

chapter 4|6 pages

The irresistible escalator

chapter 5|12 pages

Choosing a world

chapter 6|8 pages

The problem of direction

chapter 7|10 pages

Scientist and superscientist

chapter 8|9 pages

Dazzling prospects

chapter 10|8 pages

Freedom and the Monte Carlo drama

chapter 11|6 pages

Scientific education and human transience

chapter 12|8 pages

Mixed antitheses

chapter 13|10 pages

Science, scepticism and awe

chapter 15|10 pages

Who or what is selfish?

chapter 16|7 pages

Dreaming and waking

chapter 17|9 pages

The limits of individualism

chapter 18|15 pages

The vulnerable world and its claims on us