Skip to main content

Explanation of Good and Evil from Two Viewpoints (Christianity and Naturalistic Evolution)

Some who defend evolution as a worldview explain morality with the notion that human survival depends on it. For example, a clan that is infighting over resources would either function inefficiently--putting itself at risk--or destroy itself completely as enemies exploit the clan's weakened state. This means that at some point, for human survival, those who decided to cooperate with each other, rather than fight with each other, survived by working together. While it seems reasonable that natural selection chose the more cooperative among humanity and allowed the more selfish and less cooperative to die--that is, while evolution accounts for the good in people--I don't see how it accounts for the evil in people. If nature selects those who are cooperative, then why do we retain an uncooperative, selfish nature, too? Is this evil just a vestige of our old selves, like wisdom teeth or our appendix? Organs like these have no purpose, but evil does: its purpose is to destroy the self and others. It has a clear purpose, unlike vestigial organs. At least to my limited mind, I don't see how evolution explains evil.

Christianity, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive explanation for our human nature, both morality in us and evil in us. God, whose nature is love (in 1 John 4:16), "created mankind in his own image," calling all that he made "very good" (Genesis 1:27, 31) However, when Adam sinned by eating the fruit that God required him to refrain from eating, God pronounced a distinct curse on each participant in the sin act. The serpent whom Satan embodied was cursed forever to crawl on its stomach and eat dirt, and would always be enemies with man and woman. The woman would suffer in childbirth and always desire her husband, who would rule over her. The man would have to toil for the food he grows because the ground itself would be cursed, the ground would produce thorns and thistles, and man would return to the dust from where he came. The man and woman were then cut off from Eden so that they could not live forever. (Genesis 3:14-24)* Jeremiah 17:9 shows that the source of our sin is the human heart: "The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" James 4:1 does, as well: "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?"**

This explains what we see in human nature: both good and evil. The good comes from our being made in the image of God, an image we still imperfectly retain, but our evil comes from the original curse from the garden and our continual choice to sin. At least from what I see at the moment, Christianity offers a more complete explanation of good and evil than does naturalistic evolution.

*The idea of our retaining a good in us came in part from (gotquestions.org https://www.gotquestions.org/human-nature.html), as did the verses to explain the curse.
**These verses are illustrated as examples of human nature, found at "Knowing Jesus." (https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Human-Nature)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pleasure

*Note: In the following post, I am heavily influenced by a pastor named Bob Shirock. Specifically, Shirock writes about Solomon's response to the pleasures he experienced in life in Ecclesiastes, and observes that we can enjoy pleasures in life if we accept them as God's gifts, and if we express our gratitude in their enjoyment. He cites Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 and 1 Timothy 4:1-5. I’ve noticed something about pleasure: the highs can be followed by lows. This sounds obvious, but what I mean is that times of joy and fun in life's pleasures are wonderful, and can lift your spirits for a time, but they can be followed by a disappointment that comes from the realization that they are short-lived and will not satisfy us in the long-term. I’m calling this a pleasure hangover. We gain happiness for a time, but see that this happiness is temporary. We therefore feel a subsequent low that leaves us still longing. It reminds me of a theme in the life of C.S. Lewis: sehnsucht , or a wist...

Ghosts

Exercising at a gym seems to be pretty important in our culture, but it's kind of weird to see the social dynamics when you're there. Usually, if you're running an errand, you see others doing the same thing, going about their days and focusing on what's in front of them. The same thing happens at the gym, only everyone is relatively stationary. They don't really go anywhere, except from one machine or area to another. One might think this lends itself to lots of interaction between members, especially since they're all there for the same purpose, but it isn't true. Not only do people generally avoid talking to one another, but they also avoid even looking at one another. It is as though there is no one else there, even though there are dozens on any given day. Most people follow this unwritten rule, unless something in the environment-- say, two people wanting to use the same set of weights-- gives them common ground to interact, or unless they've alr...

End of an Era

It was over two years ago that I joined an experiment that would last until last July, an experiment that would significantly change me and the eleven others involved. That experiment was the creation of a new church comprised of twelve members whose purpose was to serve the people of downtown Stockton. Most attractive to me about it was that half of our income would be used in some way outside the church, to benefit the local community or to aid in international assistance. In that span of time, we did in fact serve in ways we'd envisioned. One of our first events was a pizza and school supplies giveaway (coupled with games for the kids who came) toward the end of our first summer. Many of those who came seemed genuinely happy at this. Through that year, we also hosted an event called a "card me house party," wherein each person's ticket to the event was a gift card. Once inside, chips could be purchased to play card and other games, with the resulting collection g...