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Charles Darwin

Purpose, Meaning & Darwinism

Mary Midgley meditates on mind and meaning among the mutations.

Researchers report that people who are asked to give their reason for converting to Creationism often say that they have done so because they see it as the only possible alternative to ‘Darwinism’, which they equate with atheism and find intolerable.

What does ‘Darwinism’ mean here? No doubt their idea of it often contains a good deal of bloody-minded ‘social Darwinism’, a hardy weed which like ground-elder, never really goes away. However, much more recent sources are available to them to back up their rejection. In River Out Of Eden, a book he deliberately subtitled A Darwinian View Of Life, Richard Dawkins sums up what he believes to be the Darwinian message (p.155):

“In a universe of blind forces and physical replication, some people are going to get hurt, others are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.

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