Articles
Evolutionary Morality
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"Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil" (1Kgs. 3:9).
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Heb. 5:14).
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The ability to recognize a distinction between good and evil has been a trait of humanity ever since our original parents ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We may not always choose to do the right thing, but we know the difference between the two.
For those who reject the divine origin of humanity, however, the concept of morality presents a thorny problem. This can be seen in the work of Charles Darwin, the father of modern evolutionary theory. Having concluded that all biological diversity is the result of natural selection--the strong eliminating the weak--Darwin struggled to explain the higher humanitarian instincts that separate us from lower primates.
Darwin conceded that our human understanding of moral standards are simply one branch of a variegated approach to right-and-wrong. Bees, for example, have no problem with killing some of their species to protect the queen. What humans call "morality" is nothing more than one adaptation among many. What makes "our" version of morality better or worse than any other?
Furthermore, the survival of the fittest principle, carried to its logical conclusion, provides cover for competition among ethnic groups, as more highly developed cultures slowly overpower and crowd out tribes of a more "savage" nature (his word). This bothered Darwin deeply, but he never fully resolved the dilemma to his satisfaction. The appalling use that totalitarian regimes made of this principle in the twentieth-century would have horrified him, but they were simply acting on the theory he advanced.
We do not have to study Darwin to see the fruits of evolutionary thinking on human morality. Just look around at our modern Western culture today, dominated by a deeply secular view of human origins. Young people who have been educated to believe they are nothing more than highly evolved animals, are acting like animals. The breakdown of marriage and family, and the rise of crime and violence, especially among the lower classes, is nothing more than Darwin's survival of the fittest paradigm in action. Humanity is suffering dearly for the deception.
We are not highly evolved apes. We are a unique species created by God for a unique purpose. Our ability to recognize and embrace a divine order of conduct is what makes us special among all of God's creation.
The joker in the deck is our free will. We must choose to discern good and evil, and to live by that knowledge.
--David
