Evolution as a Religion - Strange hopes and strange fears

This incisive monograph examines how evolutionary theory has transcended its scientific boundaries to function as a quasi-religious worldview for many adherents. Mary Midgley, writing from a philosophical perspective informed by intellectual history, argues that certain interpretations of evolution carry metaphysical commitments and emotional investments characteristic of religious belief systems, despite their ostensibly secular nature.

The work critically analyzes how evolutionary narratives often incorporate teleological elements, presenting evolution as a progressive force moving toward higher forms of complexity or consciousness. Midgley demonstrates how popularizers and even some scientists invest evolution with salvific qualities, treating it as a cosmic process that gives meaning and direction to human existence. She traces these tendencies through various thinkers, showing how evolutionary theory becomes freighted with hopes for human perfectibility and fears about regression or meaninglessness.

Central to Midgley's analysis is the observation that militant atheists who invoke evolution against religion often exhibit the very dogmatism they criticize in religious believers. She examines how evolutionary explanations of religion as an adaptive illusion or cognitive error can themselves function as totalizing worldviews that resist empirical falsification. The work reveals how naturalistic accounts of religious belief frequently assume what they purport to prove, treating the non-existence of God as an established premise rather than a conclusion.

The monograph engages substantially with the design argument debate, not by defending traditional natural theology but by showing how both sides often misunderstand the relationship between scientific explanation and metaphysical questions. Midgley argues that evolution neither proves nor disproves God's existence, and that attempts to make it serve either purpose distort both science and philosophy.

Her intellectual-historical method traces these confusions to the Victorian period, when evolution first became a cultural battleground. She demonstrates how early conflicts between science and religion established false dichotomies that continue to shape contemporary debates. The work's significance lies in its exposure of hidden metaphysical assumptions in supposedly neutral scientific discourse, challenging both religious and secular fundamentalisms. Midgley's analysis remains relevant to current discussions about the proper boundaries of scientific authority and the persistent human need for meaning-making frameworks, whether explicitly religious or ostensibly secular.