Indeed, one could argue that Thomism + Darwinism = 0, given how completely the core propositions of the Darwinian worldview stand in opposition to classical Thomism.
Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor of the Catholic Church.
Thus it’s a fitting moment to ask if currently influential readings of Thomas’s arguments — in the writings, for instance, of the Catholic philosopher Ed Feser — really fit with the entire corpus of Thomas’s thought. Does interpreting Thomas today, through the distorting lens of Darwinian reasoning, shift the actual content of Thomism so profoundly that Thomas himself would not recognize it?
That’s what Logan Gage argues in his recent essay, “Darwin, Design & Thomas Aquinas.”
“Let’s face it,” writes Gage, “Thomas Aquinas was not an evolutionist, let alone a Darwinist, in any sense.” Nonetheless, as Gage notes, “in recent years, some Thomists have shied away from ID” or from challenging neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. Gage thinks that these moves arise from misapprehensions, both of ID and Darwinism.
Check out his essay, and see if you agree.