Adam & Evolution-A Voyage of Self-Discovery

Out of Print...Looking at the breakdown in communication between the more volatile of the latest generation and the over-30's, the authors suggest that it arises above all from the inability of authorities and institutions to point to a way of life which is both inspirational and consistent with our experience. This inability derives from the degree of acceptance given in the last hundred years to certain aspects of Darwin's work. Thus, recent challenges by prominent authorities to the idea of the chance nature of man's origins are vital to progress as apart from mere change. The circumstantial evidence presented by Darwin may well have been more acceptable to 19th-century science as a means of breaking the stranglehold of bigoted theology than for its relevance to its subject matter. Recognition of this possibility is no longer likely to re-establish discredited church doctrine but may make room for the development of transcendental ideas of the type called 'Natural Theology' by Sir Alister Hardy. If man carries within him the inherent pattern of his own evolution and destiny much as the acorn is programmed to turn itself into an oak tree, the nature, course and goal of that destiny becomes a subject for exciting speculation. Having described the need and the framework for such a hypothesis, the authors proceed to formulate an example which, they claim, not only offers man a constructive future but conforms to the conclusions and findings of many different branches of science. It also confirms to a surprising degree the intuitive inspirations of generations of man as he has developed them in art, myth and religion. Finally, the authors point out the implications of their hypothesis for man in the immediate and longer term future. With or without his consent, they maintain, the outcome will be much the same. In the meantime, his enjoyment of life will depend upon his degree of understanding of what is happening to him both as an individual in the course of developing to maturity and as a member of a species in the course of its evolution.