Rival Paradigms

We have two recent writers on war, one a Christian and the other a Darwinian, showing that the familiar themes continue strong. In In Defence of War, Oxford Regius Professor of Theology, Nigel Biggar, argues that an Augustinian position rightly acknowledges original sin and the need for Christians to take up arms. He thinks the slaughter on the Somme justified and endorses the propriety of the Second Iraq War. In The Better Angels of our Nature, Harvard Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker argues that innately we are violent but that, over the generations, thanks to culture, we are becoming less and less warlike. Biggar is strongly committed to Providence, all is in God’s hands, Pinker is strongly committed to progress, things have and will continue to get better. We have now certainly shown that the clash between Christianity and Darwinism is less science vs. religion and more one of religion vs. religion. The case is made for Darwinism as religion. Looking ahead, now discussing in its own right the nature and causes of war, has the comparison between Christianity and Darwinism on war mean we can now move the discussion forward?