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date: 19 August 2019

Abstract and Keywords

Although evolution by natural selection does not necessarily disprove the existence of God (thus, it does not ‘prove’ the validity of atheism), it negates two of the more potent pro-religion arguments, here dubbed the ‘Argument from Complexity’ and the ‘Reassurance of Specialness’. In addition, it provides support for one of the strongest challenges to traditional religious belief, by contributing to the ‘Reiteration of Theodicy’.

Keywords: atheism, argument from complexity, specialness, theodicy, natural selection, William Paley, Thomas Huxley, Charles Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould, non-overlapping magisteria

David P. Barash

David P. Barash holds a PhD in zoology and is professor of psychology at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the author of numerous research articles and 32 books, most recently Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature (OUP, 2012).

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