Michael Ruse

Biographic Data

ID119143
NAMEMichael Ruse
GIVEN NAMESMichael
FAMILY NAMERuse
SIGNATURERUSE M
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Guelph
ORCID0000-0001-5740-0169
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS131
TOTAL CITATIONS121
AUTHOR COUNT122
EDITOR COUNT9
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1969
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2024
H-INDEX6

  • Darwin Mythology: Debunking Myths, Correcting Falsehoods

    J L Heilbron, Pietro Corsi et al.BOOKDarwin Mythology2024

  • Practicing Atheism: Culture, Media, and Ritual in the Contemporary Atheist Network

    Michael RuseARTICLEThe Journal of Religion2023

  • Evolution and ethics viewed from within two metaphors: Machine and organism

    Open AccessMichael RuseARTICLEHistory & Philosophy of the Life…2022References: 1

  • Why We Hate: Understanding the Roots of Human Conflict

    Michael RuseBOOKWhy We Hate2022

  • Taking God Seriously: Two Different Voices

    Open AccessBrian Davies, Michael RuseBOOKTaking God Seriously2021

    Is debate on issues related to faith and reason still possible when dialogue between believers and non-believers has collapsed? Taking God Seriously not only proves that it is possible, but also demonstrates that such dialogue produces fruitful results. Here, Brian Davies, a Dominican priest and leading scholar of Thomas Aquinas, and Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science and well-known non-believer, offer an extended discussion on the nature and…

  • The Cambridge History of Atheism

    Open AccessMichael Ruse, Stephen BullivantBOOKCambridge History of Atheism2021

    The two-volume Cambridge History of Atheism offers an authoritative and up to date account of a subject of contemporary interest. Comprised of sixty essays by an international team of scholars, this History is comprehensive in scope. The essays are written from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including religious studies, philosophy, sociology, and classics. Offering a global overview of the subject, from antiquity to the present, the volu…

  • Cambridge History of Atheism

    Michael Ruse, Stephen BullivantBOOKCambridge History of Atheism2021

  • Taking God Seriously

    Brian Davies, Michael RuseBOOKTaking God Seriously2021

  • Come fu che un quacchero perse Dio e trovò Darwin

    Michael RuseARTICLESOCIETÀ DEGLI INDIVIDUI (LA2021

  • Confessions of an Agnostic: Apologia Pro Vita Sua

    Open AccessMichael RuseARTICLESophia2021

  • Philosophy after Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings

    Larry Arnhart, Friedrich Von Bernhardi et al.BOOKPhilosophy after Darwin2021

  • Robert C. Bishop, Larry L. Funck, Raymond J. Lewis, Stephen O. Moshier, and John H. Walton, Understanding Scientilc Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective

    Michael RuseARTICLEJournal for the Study of Religion…2021

    Robert C. Bishop, Larry L. Funck, Raymond J. Lewis, Stephen O. Moshier, and John H. Walton, Understanding Scientilc Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), xxiv + 659pp., $75.00 (hbk), ISBN: 978-0-8308-5291-8

  • Christianity and Darwinism: The Journey Is More Important Than the Destination

    Open AccessMichael RuseARTICLEReligions2021References: 19

    Does God exist? If he does, what is the evidence for this? Can one arrive at God through reason (natural theology), or is it faith or nothing (revealed theology)? I write of my lifetime of wrestling with this question. Raised a Quaker, I lost my faith at the age of 20. As an academic, I became an expert on Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution through natural selection. How can I make sense of-and how can I reconcile-these two hugely importa…

  • Building blocks of morality

    Open AccessMichael RuseARTICLEHTS Teologiese Studies /…2020

    Most of us agree about the rules or norms of morality, what philosophers call substantive or normative ethics: be kind to small children, do not cheat on exams and return your library books on time. The big disputes come over foundations, metaethics. This article considers the four main positions. Firstly, religious ethics : Here you appeal to the will of God. The problem is not everyone believes in God, and could God make it okay to mark up libr…

  • Can Christians Live with Extinction, or Will They Get Wiped Out?

    Michael RuseARTICLEPhilosophy Theology and the…2019

    It took a long time to convince people of the reality of extinction, especially since it seemed to imply that God created organisms and then just let them die out – even worse, created organisms and let them die out before humans appeared. But it did happen and today people of religion accept this. What about humans? Are we going to go extinct? Are we going to be wiped out, for instance by global warming? Or are we all going to change into new be…

  • On Purpose

    Open AccessMichael RuseBOOKOn Purpose2019

    Can we live without the idea of purpose? Should we even try to? Kant thought we were stuck with it, and even Darwin, who profoundly shook the idea, was unable to kill it. Indeed, purpose seems to be making a comeback today, as both religious advocates of intelligent design and some prominent secular philosophers argue that any explanation of life without the idea of purpose is missing something essential. This book explores the history of purpose…

  • Charles Darwin

    Open AccessMichael RuseCHAPTEREncyclopedia of Evolutionary…2019

  • After Darwin: Morality in a Secular World

    Jeff O’Connell, J E A O'Connell et al.ARTICLESecular Studies2019

    In the second half of the nineteenth century, many people lost their faith in the Christian God. Nevertheless, they were eager to show that this move towards a secular world picture did not mean the end of morality and that it could continue as much before. In a Darwinian age this was not possible and the Christian cherishing of the virtue of meekness was replaced by a moral respect for vigor and effort directed both towards self-realization and …

  • The Problem of War

    Michael RuseBOOKProblem of War2018

    Darwinian evolutionary theory is one of the brightest jewels in the crown of science; yet it has been highly controversial since its first appearance in the Origin of Species in 1859. Well known is the opposition of so many Christians, an opposition that shows little sign of abating today. The Problem of War: Darwinism, Christianity, and Their Battle to Understand Human Conflict argues that the roots of the unease lie not simply (as many think) i…

  • Rival Paradigms

    Michael RuseBOOKProblem of War2018

    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 …

  • Christianity, Darwinism, and War: A Paradox

    Michael RuseARTICLESoundings An Interdisciplinary…2018

    Both Christians and Darwinians have discussed the topic of war very extensively. There is a paradox. One might think that Christians, as followers of Jesus' commands in the Sermon on the Mount, would be against war, and Darwinians, as followers of the claims of the Origin of Species about a struggle for existence leading to change, would be in favor of war. To the contrary, Christians have long argued that one can legitimately go to war and that …

  • Problem of War: Darwinism, Christianity, and Their Battle to Understand Human Conflict

    Michael RuseBOOKProblem of War2018

    Darwinism and war: science or religion? argues that the different perspectives of Christians and Darwinians on the nature and causes of warfare reveal them to be playing the same game, offering not so much scientific or empirical explanations but rival value-laden analyses, suggesting we have less a science-religion conflict and more one between two rival religious visions - Christianity and a form of secular Darwinian humanism

  • The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Ethics

    Open AccessHallvard Lillehammer, Jeffrey O’connell et al.BOOKCambridge Handbook of Evolutionary…2017

    Evolutionary ethics - the application of evolutionary ideas to moral thinking and justification - began in the nineteenth century with the work of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, but was subsequently criticized as an example of the naturalistic fallacy. In recent decades, however, evolutionary ethics has found new support among both the Darwinian and the Spencerian traditions. This accessible volume looks at the history of thought about evolu…

  • Love and Evolution

    Michael RuseCHAPTEROxford Handbook of the Philosophy…2017

    Evolution today means Darwinian evolution, and that means natural selection. Can natural selection tell us anything about love? Sex and love are intertwined. They are not the same, but the former can give insights to the latter. Natural selection can tell us a great deal about sex. Why we have sex, why we have only two sexes, why some people have same-sex orientation. Can natural selection give us insights into the nature of love? Much depends on…

  • On Purpose

    Michael RuseBOOKOn Purpose2017