Is Evolution / Darwinism just a modern version of Epicurean philosophy?

Question

I am not asking this question with knowledge of the answer. I know very little about either. However I once read Lucretius, an Epicurean, ‘On the Nature of Things’ and it seemed that Epicurean philosophy is very similar in mentality to Darwinian philosophy, so that that Darwin seemed just an ‘evolved’ form of Epicurean.

Paul debated with these men, as well as the stoics who I found just as entertaining.

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. (NIV ACTS 17:18)

Is a Christian argument against evolution just the same thing (like Paul reasoning with the Epicureans?) so that there really is ‘nothing new under the Sun’, or is Darwinism something really quite different?

I should add I never have believed in Evolution, even when I was not a Christian. I have always thought it unreasonable from a scientific point of view. However, I really have not thought about it much in my life.

I can't say how I had these thoughts, from the linked Epicurean article, as it was many years ago that I read it. I was wondering if somebody knew more about this topic and can answer the question.

Answer 1

Lucretius was certainly thinking along the same lines as secular science, yes, with some primitive hints of what later became evolution:

Fear holds dominion over mortality Only because, seeing in land and sky So much the cause whereof no wise they know, Men think Divinities are working there. Meantime, when once we know from nothing still Nothing can be create, we shall divine More clearly what we seek: those elements From which alone all things created are, And how accomplished by no tool of Gods.

Suppose all sprang from all things: any kind Might take its origin from any thing, No fixed seed required. Men from the sea Might rise, and from the land the scaly breed, And, fowl full fledged come bursting from the sky; The horned cattle, the herds and all the wild Would haunt with varying offspring tilth and waste; Nor would the same fruits keep their olden trees, But each might grow from any stock or limb By chance and change.

But this is just philosophy. At the time the tools to investigate and demonstrate this as a science were simply absent, which is a shame. His main trust is to investigate what is without recourse to the legends of the time - very progressive. In many ways, a shame that such thought largely stalled for a while.

Evolution is more than such broad hand-wavey gestures; it is a statement of the process and mechanism for such change, rather than randomness.

I suspect, however, that everything we are talking about is Lucretius, and not really Epicureanism.

Answer 2

"Evolution" has a number of different meanings depending on who you ask (or which definition is convenient at the time!) But the simplest answer is no - it is not simply a modern version of Epicureanism.

When "Evolution" is used to describe a philosophy, it is generally describing the atheistic, naturalistic philosophy which holds that all creatures descended from a common ancestor, that life arose from non-life, and that all matter arose from a Big Bang (or something similar) billions of years ago, with the entire process - from "beginning" to end - being natural.

Epicureanism, on the other hand, is a system of philosophy which is basically centered around maximizing pleasure in life. You can read more about it here.

The two do share at least one thing in common: they are both materialistic (teaching that the only things which exist are material in nature; i.e. no God).

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However, as a side note, you were correct in your suspicion of 'nothing new under the sun'. This passage predates both Epicurus and Darwin:

“As the thief is shamed when he is discovered, so the house of Israel is shamed; They, their kings, their princes and their priests and their prophets, who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face; But in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise and save us.’ But where are your gods which you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. Why do you contend with Me? You have all transgressed against Me,” declares the Lord. -Jeremiah 2:26-29