A leading proponent of evolutionary psychology—the phrenology of of modern times—claims Thomas Aquinas as one of their own :
In 1975, Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson created a firestorm when, in his book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, he argued that human nature might be explainable in evolutionary terms. Centuries earlier, however, a leading Christian scholar was already applying many key evolutionary principles to the understanding of man.[ . . . ]
If he were alive today would Aquinas be an evolutionist? His writings suggest a mind already resonating with many evolutionary concepts. My sense is that Aquinas, like Aristotle and Albert before him, was just too curious and too smart not be at the intellectual vanguard wrestling with exciting new knowledge. Limping weakly behind with whiny unimaginative creationists would have been far too boring for a mind such as his.
If he were alive today Aquinas might be an evolutionist. But like most rational people, Aquinas would be skeptical of the idiotic claims of evolutionary psychology. Do we really think he would believe, as some evolutionary psychologists claim, that men tip better in restaurants because we’ve been programmed to show how much surplus wealth we have? Is it possible that the Angelic Doctor could believe anything that dumb?
(Via: Uncommon Descent ))
