Journal of Religion and the Contemporary World

Journal of Religion and the Contemporary World

A Comparative Analysis of Edward Wilson and Daniel Dennett's Naturalistic Perspectives on Human Creation and a Comparison with Revelation-Based Approaches in Foundations and Outcomes

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 PhD student, Faculty of Theology, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
Naturalists like Wilson and Dennett believe that humans are beings developed within the cycle of nature and the process of evolution. From Wilson's perspective, the empirical sciences and religion, as part of the humanities, are interconnected and interact; however, Dennett doesn't attribute any validity to religion within the realm of human culture, and his reasoning in this regard suffers from conceptual contradictions and internal paradoxes. This qualitative research, using a comparative method, demonstrates that naturalistic viewpoints regarding the development and emergence of humans, while fundamentally distinct from revelation-based perspectives, possess certain affinities and similarities. In reality, both perspectives acknowledge the alignment of some human characteristics with other creatures in nature through the evolutionary process and certain apparent specificities, but this alignment, from a naturalistic viewpoint, applies to the entirety of human nature, while from a religious viewpoint, it only applies to the physical aspect of humanity. The finding of this research is the presentation of a theory of structural evolution and identity evolution of humans, from which the relationship between humans and nature can be viewed philosophically as akin to the relationship between a person and their soul. The type of perspective on human creation will lead to distinct results and consequences.
Keywords

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