Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society
Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society
复制标题
达尔文大教堂：进化、宗教和社会本质
DOI：
10.7208/chicago/9780226901374.001.0001
复制
发表时间：
2002
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
D. Wilson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Wilson
现代重大的思想斗争之一发生在进化论和宗教之间。到目前为止，它们一直被视为关于起源和存在的完全不可调和的理论。大卫·斯隆·威尔逊的《达尔文的大教堂》迈出了大胆的一步，将两者结合起来，在此过程中提出了一种宗教的进化论，这一理论从根本上撼动了进化生物学和社会理论。威尔逊认为，关键是要将社会视为一个有机体，这是一个基于进化生物学的最新发展而重获新生的古老观点。如果社会是一个有机体，我们是否可以将道德和宗教视为在生物和文化上进化而来的适应性机制，使人类群体能够像单一的单元而非仅仅是个体的集合那样运作呢？威尔逊从生物科学和社会科学两方面带来了各种各样的证据来探讨这个问题。从16世纪日内瓦的加尔文主义到巴厘岛的水神庙，从狩猎采集社会到美国城市，威尔逊展示了宗教是如何使人们通过集体行动实现他们独自永远无法做到的事情。他还包括一章从进化的角度思考宽恕，并在结尾讨论了所有社会组织，甚至科学，如何通过融入宗教元素而受益。宗教信徒经常将他们的社群比作单一的有机体，甚至比作昆虫群落。令人惊讶的是，威尔逊表明他们可能从字面上来说是正确的。《达尔文的大教堂》面向任何有学识的读者，它应该会永远改变我们看待进化论、宗教和人类社会之间关系的方式。
One of the great intellectual battles of modern times is between evolution and religion. Until now, they have been considered completely irreconcilable theories of origin and existence. David Sloan Wilson's "Darwin's Cathedral" takes the radical step of joining the two, in the process proposing an evolutionary theory of religion that shakes both evolutionary biology and social theory at their foundations. The key, argues Wilson, is to think of society as an organism, an old idea that has received new life based on recent developments in evolutionary biology. If society is an organism, can we then think of morality and religion as biologically and culturally evolved adaptations that enable human groups to function as single units rather than mere collections of individuals? Wilson brings a variety of evidence to bear on this question, from both the biological and social sciences. From Calvinism in 16th-century Geneva to Balinese water temples, from hunter-gatherer societies to urban America, Wilson demonstrates how religions have enabled people to achieve by collective action what they never could do alone. He also includes a chapter considering forgiveness from an evolutionary perspective and concludes by discussing how all social organizations, even science, could benefit by incoporating elements of religion. Religious believers often compare their communities to single organisms and even to insect colonies. Astoundingly, Wilson shows that they might be literally correct. Intended for any educated reader, "Darwin's Cathedral" should change forever the way we view the relations among evolution, religion and human society.