248 J.J. Haldane
redeem innocent suffering. Should our yearnings be without the possibility of
completion then we are indeed without point or purpose; but should these
longings be purposeful in something close to the terms in which they rep-
resent themselves, then we can hope to enter into the eternal company of
God. That is the prospect offered by the theism I have been concerned to argue
for, and it is, I believe, the best explanation of our heart’s desire and of the
possibility that evil is neither without point nor just response.^23
Notes1 The first edition of Atheism and Theism is discussed in the following reviews
and publications: William Alston, The Philosophical Quarterly, 49 (1999) pp. 128 –
30; James Baillie, Philosophical Books, 38 (1997) pp. 215–18; John Bishop, Sophia,
36 (1997) pp. 38 – 52; Timothy Chappell, Mind, 110 (2001) pp. 836–9; William
Lane Craig, Ratio, 11 (1998) pp. 200–5; Stefaan Cuypers, International Journal of
Philosophical Studies, 5 (1997) pp. 479–83; Brian Davies, The Tablet, 251 (1997)
p. 220; Steve Else, Reviews in Religion and Theology, 4 (1997) pp. 24 – 9; Peter
Forrest,Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 79 (2001) pp. 125 – 6; Robin Le Poidevin,
European Journal of Philosophy, 6 (1999) pp. 99 – 103; Michael Levine, Canadian
Journal of Philosophy, 29 (1999) pp. 157 – 70; Hugh McCann, Philosophical Review,
107 (1998) pp. 462 –4; Robert McKim, Teaching Philosophy, 21 (1998) pp. 294 –
301; Michael Martin, Religious Studies, 33 (1997) pp. 227 – 9; Hugo Meynell,
Heythrop Journal, 38 (1997) pp. 444 – 5; Reg Naulty, Australian National Univer-
sity Reporter, 29 (1998) p. 5; Russell Pannier, Review of Metaphysics, 51 (1997)
pp. 446 – 8; Martin Perlmutter, Dialogue, 38 (1999) pp. 609 – 10; Alexander Pruss
and Richard Gale, Faith and Philosophy, 16 (1999) pp. 106 – 13; Hayden Ramsay,
New Blackfriars, 78 (1997) pp. 111 – 16; Tadeusz Szubka, Philosophy in Review,
17 (1997); Michael McGhee, Transformations of Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000) Ch. 10 ‘Theism, non-theism and Haldane’s Fork’; John
O’Callaghan,Thomistic Realism and the Linguistic Turn (Notre Dame: Notre
Dame University Press, 2002) Ch. X ‘Toward a More Perfect Form of Existence’;
and Mark Wynn, ‘Emergent Phenomena and Theistic Explanation’,Interna-
tional Philosophical Quarterly, 39 (1999) pp. 144 – 55, and God and Goodness:
A Natural Theological Perspective (London: Routledge, 1999) Ch. 2 ‘The World
as a Source of Value’.
2 This theory originates in the period between the First and Second World
Wars in the work of Alexander Oparin, The Origin of Life on Earth (London:
Macmillan, 1938) and J.B.S. Haldane (‘The Origin of Life’,Rationalist Annual,
3 (1929) pp. 148–53; reprinted in J.B.S. Haldane, The Origin of Life and Other
Essaysedited by John Maynard Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)).
In the 1950s Stanley Miller and others sought to reproduce the soup under
laboratory conditions and were successful in producing organic molecules –
ingredients of life, though not themselves examples of it (see Miller, ‘A Production