Sunday, August 9, 2009

The Lucifer Principle

I have a new essay up at bensozia, a review of a flawed book on the fascinating topic of how biological evolution plays out in human history.

2 comments:

Thomas said...

Evolution is not immoral, but it is amoral.

Someone asked me, "If evolution is true, why don't we let sick and disabled children die?"

The obvious answer is that evolution is not a moral system. That doesn't mean that evolution is an immoral system, it's just not a system on which we can base moral values.

John said...

Exactly.

It only says what is. What we do about it is up to us.

And while it is true that cruelty is "natural", so is kindness. Nothing about evolutionary thinking takes the choice from us of which we wish to be.