Michael Ruse

Michael Ruse (born June 21, 1940 in Birmingham, England) is a philosopher of biology, and is well known for his work on the creation/evolution controversy and the demarcation problem in science. He was born in England, took his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol (1962), his master's degree at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario (1964), and Ph.D. at the University of Bristol (1970). Ruse taught at the University of Guelph Canada for 35 years. Since his retirement from Guelph, he has taught at Florida State University and is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy (2000-present). In 1986, he was elected as a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Bergen, Norway (1990), the McMaster University, Ontario, Canada (2003) and most recently the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (2007).

Ruse was a key witness for the plaintiff in the 1981 test case (McLean v. Arkansas) of the state law permitting the teaching of "Creation Science" in the Arkansas school system (signed by governor Frank White).^[1] The federal judge ruled that the state law was unconstitutional.

Ruse takes the position that it is possible to reconcile the Christian faith with evolutionary theory, unlike, for example, Phillip E. Johnson.^[2] Though Ruse regards Richard Dawkins' stance as one similar to Phillip E. Johnson's, that is, Christian faith is incompatible with evolutionary theory in the sense that a religious believer must either reject religion or evolution, he has misunderstood Dawkins' position because Richard Dawkins has stated that religious believers can and do accept evolution as in the case of his fellow scientists, the Christians Ken Miller and Francis Collins.[1] Dawkins' point is that religion as a field is incompatible with science as science relies on evidence while religion does not.

Ruse now debates regularly with William A. Dembski, a known proponent of intelligent design.^[3]

Ruse founded the journal Biology and Philosophy^[4] and has published numerous books and articles.

Selected works

• Darwinism and its Discontents (2006) ISBN 0-521-82947-X
• The Evolution-Creation Struggle (2005) ISBN 0-674-01687-4
• Darwin and Design: Does evolution have a purpose? (2003) ISBN 0-674-01631-9
• The evolution wars: a guide to the debates (2003) ISBN 1-57607-185-5
• Can a Darwinian be a Christian? the relationship between science and religion (2001) ISBN 0-521-63716-3
• Biology and the foundation of ethics (1999) ISBN 0-521-55923-5
• Mystery of mysteries: is evolution a social construction? (1999) ISBN 0-674-00543-0
• But is it science? the philosophical question in the creation/evolution controversy (1996) ISBN 0879754397
• Monad to man: the concept of progress in evolutionary biology (1996) ISBN 0-674-58220-9
• Evolutionary naturalism: selected essays (1995) ISBN 0-415-08997-2
• The Darwinian paradigm: essays on its history, philosophy and religious implications (1989) ISBN 0-415-08951-4
• The Philosophy of biology today (1988) ISBN 0-88706-911-8
• Homosexuality: a philosophical inquiry (1988) ISBN 0-631-17553-9
• Taking Darwin seriously: a naturalistic approach to philosophy (1986) ISBN 0-631-13542-1
• Sociobiology, sense or nonsense? (1st ed. 1979, 2nd ed. 1985) ISBN 90-277-1798-2
• Darwinism defended, a guide to the evolution controversies (1982) ISBN 0-201-06273-9
• Is science sexist? and other problems in the biomedical sciences (1981) ISBN 90-277-1250-6
• The Darwinian revolution (1979) ISBN 0-226-73164-2

References

External links

• Michael Ruse's Homepage at Florida State
• Can a Christian be a Darwinian? Lecture given in 2007 at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
• Speech by Michael Ruse 1993 to American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Michael Ruse discusses faith, evolution and Richard Dawkins at the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney