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Altruism And The Administration Of The Universe: Kirtley Fletcher Mather On Science And Values, Edward B. Davis

Biology Educator Scholarship

Few American scientists have devoted as much attention to religion and science as Harvard geologist Kirtley Fletcher Mather (1888-1978). Responding to antievolutionism during the 1920s, he taught Sunday School classes, assisted in defending John Scopes, and wrote Science in Search of God (1928). Over the next 40 years, Mather explored the place of humanity in the universe and the presence of values in light of what he often called "the administration of the universe," a term and concept he borrowed from his former teacher, geologist Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin. Human values, including cooperation and altruism, had emerged in such a context: …