Religion, Science and Ethics

This address opens with stewardship, a central theme relating theistic religions to ethics. This theme is central to modern Christianity and Judaism, and increasingly to contemporary Islam. It is accepted by Islamic scholars such as Azizan Baharuddin. While it is not itself an ethic, it is a model of the role of humanity within the created order, and one with ethical implications. The most relevant field of science is ecological science. This science embodies widely accepted teachings about ecosystems. Climate science is an off-shoot, and is influencing international climate negotiations. We all need to accept and act on its findings. But ecology is grounded in Darwinism. Darwinism encountered resistance from some, as well as a welcome from other religious leaders. I have argued elsewhere that Darwinism and theism are compatible. One apparent problem concerned whether humans could have non-human ancestors. Another problem concerned pre-human suffering, which is a genuine problem for theologians. But we cannot discard Darwinism to solve this problem, as many Christians recognised. For there are many strands of strong evidence for Darwinism.