Evolutionary Materialism Promotes Deadly Sins
Name a vice, and Darwinians will be there to rationalize it on evolutionary grounds. They claim proud ownership of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Timothy D. Clark preached a fiery sermon to the readers of Nature last week, warning about the alarming rise of dishonesty among scientists. “Too many researchers make up or massage their data,” he says. It’s not a small problem, either. You can almost hear the pounding on the pulpit:
Scientists like to think that such blatant dishonesty is rare, but I myself have witnessed several serious cases of scientific misconduct, from major data manipulation to outright fabrication. Most have gone unpunished — in fact, it has been disheartening to see the culprits lauded. It makes little sense for fraudsters to fabricate mediocre data. Their falsehoods generate outstanding stories, which result in high-profile publications and a disproportionately large chunk of the funding pie.
I have noticed a lesser-known motive for bad science in my field, experimental biology. As environmental change proceeds, there is great demand from the public and policymakers for simple stories that show the damage being done to wildlife. I occasionally meet scientists who argue that the questions we ask and the stories we tell are more important than the probity of our investigations: the end justifies the means, even if the means lead to data fabrication. That view is alarmingly misguided and has no place in science.
But should it be surprising that scientists act this way? Most of them are evolutionists, and evolutionists from Daddy Darwin on have tried to explain every human behavior in terms of a material process called natural selection. In Darwin’s godless world, whoever wins the fitness race is OK. There are no morals. So why be honest? Why not let the ends justify the means? As we shall see, Darwinian theory itself proposes a ‘scientific’ reason why cheating ’emerges’ in social groups, from bacteria to humans, so it’s to be expected that a certain number of scientists will cheat, too. But a funny thing happened on the way to the lab. In an amoral universe, one cannot tell the difference between a cheater and a cooperator, except by which one belongs to the majority at a point in time. Today’s cheater could evolve into tomorrow’s cooperator. Ever hear of ‘honor among thieves’? Ever hear of ‘might makes right’? In short, fitness is Darwin’s standard for morality – and fitness can be anything imaginable, as long as your genes survive.
Dishonesty is not the only vice they can justify on Darwinian grounds. Evolutionists seem on a virtual campaign to rationalize the Seven Deadly Sins as normal and natural. Study Darwinian literature on the origins of human behavior, and you can almost hear the hiss of the serpent in the background: You will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Don’t believe it? Read on.
Pride — Sin or Incentive? (UC Santa Barbara). You read that right; pride is a good thing that evolution bequeaths to us. Forget the Bible’s hoary value of humility. Darwin is here. Though we satirize their thoughts in italics, we’re not exaggerating. Let the smiling faces of John Tooby and Leda Cosmides tell you in their own words:
As human emotions go, pride has earned a bad rap. Christians count it among the seven deadly sins, the ancient Greeks charged it with provoking destruction by the gods, and non-industrial peoples around the world consider it a source of bad luck.
Still, some behavioral scientists reject pride as a universal emotion, arguing that individuals in other cultures, such as Japan, lack the pride-achievement motivation so familiar to Westerners.
But does pride really deserve its reputation both as a menace and as an emotion limited to only some cultures? Perhaps not, say a group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Evolutionary Psychology (CEP). Pride, they argue, served an important function in social life that led to its evolution among our foraging ancestors.
They’re not talking about a pride of lions, mind you. Notice that pride “evolved” in their twisted thinking (actually, perfectly logical thinking, given the premise of Darwinian amorality). No wonder David Berezow listed “The article is about evolutionary psychology” in his list of ‘fake science’ tip-offs (see 2/03/17). It’s easy to see why. All you have to do is turn the story on the authors: You’re just saying this because natural selection turned you into a couple of stuck-up, insufferable, conceited know-it-alls. If they protest, ‘No, we’re honest about this,’ you can arrogantly respond, Aha! I know you. Well, I evolved to tell you off, and inform you that you are complete losers! What can they say? Here’s what they might say with pride: You think you are so clever. Well, WE got published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences! We’re obviously better than you! So there! Ahem; Truth just flew out the window when you weren’t watching.
Microbes may encourage altruistic behavior (Phys.org). To the evolutionist, altruism is the flip side of selfishness. Both are integral parts of mindless behaviors that emerge through natural selection. It emerges in bacteria; it emerges in human societies. It’s neither good or bad; just indifferent. Darwinians typically employ ‘game theory’ to model how altruism emerges. This can only mean one thing: the scientists who say this are only playing games to trick you. They are only pretending to be altruistic by sharing scientific truth with you, when really they are being selfish. “I believe the most important aspect of the work is that it changes the way we think about altruism from centering on the animals (or humans) performing the altruistic acts to their microbes,” one of them said. Blame your gut bacteria, in other words. Such teaching is sure to increase charitable giving, is it not?
Fish show cheating can be better than playing by the rules in the mating game (Domino Joyce, The Conversation). Two of the traditional deadly sins are lust and greed. You can see where this article is going just from the title. Cheating wins in the evolutionary game. If it works for fish, it can work for thee. Don’t teach this to the teenagers.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about these fish. How did so many species evolve in such a short evolutionary time scale? What is the genetic basis for their behaviour? What determines female preference and why? How do changes in the environment affect their ability to attract mates?
Studying these questions provides a wider insight into the evolution of complex behaviours and the way that female choice can shape evolution. Males who build impressive sandcastles are favoured by females, and this has driven their evolution. But it’s possible that being sneaky could also be a viable strategy for evolutionary success.
Female sociality and sexual conflict shape offspring survival in a Neotropical primate (PNAS). Get a load of this: natural selection can produce infanticide. “These findings indicate that new alpha males are more likely to target the infants of more social, and therefore central, females. Our study provides evidence that female sociality can negatively affect offspring survival by increasing the likelihood of infanticide.” It’s all you women’s fault. You’re standing in the way of the alpha male. He can’t help himself. Is that the lesson of this paper? Since humans are just another species of primate in Darwin’s reductionist world, how can a court convict a child killer?
Impact of Social Reward on the Evolution of the Cooperation Behavior in Complex Networks (Nature Scientific Reports). At the risk of overdoing the subject of the “evolution of cooperation” by “evolutionary games” played by natural selection, we’re showing this is a common theme in a variety of major journals. Cooperators, cheaters, games— various ‘strategies’ merely emerge by the mindless actions of individuals driven by their selfish genes. These authors are dead serious: “Our research might provide valuable insights into further exploring the nature of cooperation in the real world.” So let’s ask them: Are you guys cheaters or cooperators? How am I supposed to tell? Are you writing this paper just to take advantage of me? Are you just playing evolutionary games by making this story up? The major media seem incapable of thinking this through. Phys.org reported cheerfully, “A research team led by mathematician Tatsuya Sasaki from the University of Vienna presents a new optimal theory of the evolution of reputation-based cooperation. This team proves that the practice of making moral assessments conditionally is very effective in establishing cooperation in terms of evolutionary game theory. ” If it’s just a game, ‘making moral assessments’ is just part of the strategy.
Killing off rivals makes for happy families, bacteria study finds (University of Edinburgh). Here comes a gem from Charles Darwin’s own alma mater that the Family Research Council is sure to love: “A grisly method by which bacteria dispatch their distant relatives also creates conditions in which the attackers can thrive.” Hey, if it’s for the common good, great. Who’s to complain? It increases their fitness. Since fitness is the only value in Darwinism, let’s all learn a lesson from bacteria that kill off their rivals. The rivals don’t have to be bad or evil; they’re just anyone that stands in their way of sex (don’t teach this to teenagers). Now for the fine print: “The study, supported by The Wellcome Trust, The Human Frontier Science Program, The National Science Foundation, NASA and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, was published in Nature Communications.” Knowing that, run for your life! The people who believe this have money and power. They’re after you. You are the rival if you don’t cooperate! Don’t run to the editors of New Scientist, though; they’re infected with the Darwin mind virus, too. “Vicious microbial warfare helps bacteria evolve cooperation,” they celebrate.
Had enough? One more:
Evolved instincts shaped democracy to resist bullies like Trump (Christopher Boehm for New Scientist). We keep thinking we can’t top the inanity (or insanity) of the last Darwinese mythoid, only to be disappointed. Boehm not only begs the question that Trump is a bully—he not only misrepresents Trumps words and actions—he actually rationalizes murdering the President on Darwinian grounds! – or close to it. Listen:
But resisting bullies has been part of our nature for a long time. As an anthropologist, I study human hunter-gatherers. For tens of thousands of years, these egalitarian people would band together to kill tyrants. Some 90 per cent of human history was spent in such groups. Those instincts are with us still, albeit sanitised for contemporary society.
Now we can understand all the anti-Trump rallies being promoted by scientists:
- “Act for Science” (Rush Holt in Science Magazine)
- “From a tweet, a March for Science is born” (Lindzi Wessel in Science Magazine)
- “Science stood apart from politics for a long time, not any more” (Michael Brooks in New Scientist)
- “Should Scientists Engage in Activism?” (Oransky and Marcus at The Conversation)
- “Science entering a new frontier: Politics” (Phys.org)
We know from Darwinian assumptions what’s going on. These self-righteous protestors don’t mean a word of it. They, too, are pawns in evolutionary games being played by the invisible hand of natural selection.
Update 2/13/17: Frequency-dependent female genital cutting behaviour confers evolutionary fitness benefits (Nature Ecology & Evolution). That this paper would even be published shows the extremes to which evolutionary biologists will justify evil. Female genital mutilation is a human rights violation! It is practiced by adherents of violent, male-dominated religions like Islam. To even suggest that it has “evolutionary fitness benefits” gives aid and comfort to the perpetrators of evil. Allison Macfarlane (a professor of perinatal health in London) gave this idea only a mild rebuke, calling it “unproven and potentially damaging” in The Conversation. Meanwhile, Medical Xpress only writes about the best treatments for female genital mutilation, ignoring the obvious one: stop the bad guys who do it. This common-sense outlook is foreign to evolutionists, because they don’t believe true evil exists. In their view, every human behavior—no matter how bad—must have come about because it “confers evolutionary fitness benefits” somehow.
The deadliest sin of all is self-deception. You see it right here, in what the Darwinian mindset has done to truth, rationality, and morals. Don’t worry about what they say, because it cannot possibly be true — it is self-refuting! If Darwinian evolution produced their righteous indignation, it’s just a game. It has no meaning.
Evolutionary scientists are wonderfully designed human beings, but like all people, are fallen into sin. The sin nature that afflicts all humans gives rise to lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy and pride – the “seven deadly sins” to which we are all prone. Darwin’s doctrine is the latest manifestation of man’s prideful inclination to justify sin rather than confront it.
So how should rational people like Christians respond to all this? Well, we don’t act like them with lies, anger and trickery. We don’t play games. We use Christ’s formula that never fails: speak the truth with love. Paul said, “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” (Ephesians 4:14-15). Continuing, Paul describes our age pretty accurately, then prescribes what to do about it. “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:17-24). Christ is the Door to the light of life, where truth is true and morality is genuinely moral. Reject the Darwinian game world. Escape to reality.