Stephen Jay Gould
Palaeontologist. The oddities of living things, like the panda's "thumb", are traces of a history, not an engineer's signature.
Life
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was an American palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist, a professor at Harvard. With Niles Eldredge he proposed in 1972 the theory of punctuated equilibria: evolution would often proceed in rapid jumps between long stable periods. From 1974 to 2001 he wrote a monthly popular-science column in Natural History. In the debate on science and religion he defends the idea of "non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA): science deals with facts, religion with meaning and values.
Main works
The imperfections of living things are traces of a history, not the work of a perfect engineer.
The Burgess Shale fossils show the role of contingency: replaying the tape of life would give a different result.
Science and religion each have their own domain and should not wage war on each other.
In his own words
« The net of science covers the empirical universe: what is it made of (fact) and why does it work this way (theory). The net of religion extends over questions of moral meaning and value. »
« The lack of conflict between science and religion arises from a lack of overlap between their respective domains of professional expertise—science in the empirical constitution of the universe, and religion in the search for proper ethical values and the spiritual meaning of our lives. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe calls himself agnostic: science says nothing for or against God.
Gould, Rocks of Ages (1999)
Science and religion are two separate domains (non-overlapping magisteria) that should respect each other rather than clash.
Gould, Rocks of Ages (1999)
If the tape of life were replayed, humans would probably not appear: we are a contingent outcome, not a goal of evolution.
Gould, Wonderful Life (1989)