#161 – Human evolution, morality, and our ultimate purpose

Human evolution is hard to take for some Christians, especially when we claim that humans have been climbing up the evolutionary ladder in the moral sense.

It was only a few years ago that Pew Research found roughly one third of Americans believe that “humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time” (and in case the obvious really needs to be said, this means they completely deny human evolution) and then went on to show that most of that opinion comes from the Evangelical camp.  If one third deny human evolution, then that means two thirds accept human evolution, right? 

But do they? Fully?

Probably everyone in that two thirds camp would agree that we’ve been evolving in the biological and cognitive sense.  Our bodies and brains emerged out of the genetic mixing bowl of life, and we’ve got a ton of science to back up that claim. Those are two lines in the sand that we in this camp find easy to step over.

And we’ve also been evolving religiously, theologically, and spiritually during that whole time as well.  In addition to the mountain of evidence for biological and cognitive evolution, we also have a mountain of evidence for this aspect of human existence.  But some of us in the two thirds camp might be just a little bit hesitant to fully accept that third aspect of human evolution, and to step over that third line in the sand.

But then we come to a fourth aspect of human existence: our morality and ethics.  This is where I find a substantial number in our two thirds camp suddenly stop marching with us and say “hold on a minute there.  That’s perhaps a step too far.”  And their explanations often include references to dropping nuclear bombs in the 1940s, or something along those lines.

In this episode, we look at statistics and history over the past fifty thousand years that show how the human species has NOT been getting more murderous or destructive over time (when you take into account the number of people on the planet at any given time), but that we HAVE been becoming more compassionate, respectful and helping. As you listen to Scott and I talking about this, open up this link that documents global death rates due to war, this link for estimated global population sizes, and this link for measures of human rights, over the past centuries and millennia. There clearly has been a distinct upward rise in global human rights, in recognition of equality (for other genders, races, sexualities), in demands for justice, and in protests against wars and discrimination.  Yes, we still have that murderous and competitive tendency that millions of years of evolution hammered into us (the infamous struggle for survival), but we also have this growing compassionate and cooperative side (the “snuggle for survival” that we talked about in episode #76).  We’re growing up as a species! Unfortunately, we’re currently in that awkward teenage stage, trying to navigate the transition from childhood to being grown up adults. That’s notoriously a difficult stage (ask any parent) and we’ve been at this stage for about 500 years! We just need to get past that mistake-filled stage of uncontrolled emotions coupled with unlimited powers.

And here’s why I’m beating this drum.  We humans are uniquely equipped to not only inhabit every ecosystem on the planet, but to also change all those ecosystems.  And whether you believe that we humans were Divinely-created and placed in charge here, or that we evolved here and worked our way into that pinnacle position, either way it has become our responsibility to take care of the planet and each other. We have it within our means to eradicate other species, and to rescue them from extinction. To destroy whole ecosystems, and to protect them. To divert massive rivers, cause floods, drain and pollute lakes, but also to manage water systems and conserve them.  To enslave and mistreat fellow humans, and to liberate them.  I could go on, but you get the point.  We have this unique ability, which I think then confers on us a unique responsibility.

We need to recognize that, and further develop our technology and our societies …. together with our evolving morality and ethics … and step into that stewardship role with conviction.

As always, tell us your thoughts on this topic …

If you enjoyed this episode, you might enjoy the book I wrote on human evolution and how that impacts our theology or our collection of other episodes that look at various aspects of human evolution.

Episode image by Andrew. Thanks Andrew!

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