Evolutionary Ethics Ruins Families

Teach children they are accidents of nature, and what will you get? Family breakdown. But the evidence goes against the evolutionary view.

Here are samples of what scientists under the spell of secular materialism are doing to the world. It’s not good.

Suicide. A tragic article on Medical Xpress, filled with anecdotes of young people who took their own lives, leaves the reader empty except for the obvious truism that “need some help.” But what help is Darwinism? Should a teen learn that he or she is a result of a long chain of accidents, with no purpose?

Children as animals. An article on Science Daily, “Comparing children and bonobos” (a variety of chimpanzee), opens with a cute picture of daughter imitating dad. The scientific evidence clearly shows that children exhibit behaviors that are “uniquely human” and far superior to monkeys. But the ruling paradigm of our society says they are just a form of primate, different in degree but not in kind, resulting from the same process.

Crime. Consider this headline on Phys.org, “Teen brains may not be as hard-wired for crime as previously thought.” The very question is suspect. Why even start there, that humans of any age come hard-wired? While nice to know teen brains are not as hard-wired for crime as previously thought, who thought that previously anyway?

Abortion. Oregon now requires insurance companies to cover abortions, and Medical Xpress sounds just fine with that. Why do political leaders come to such radical positions on right to life? Have they not been told that a ‘fetus’ is not really human, but just a clump of cells recapitulating its evolutionary history? Evolutionists and pro-abortionists go hand in hand ideologically, but nothing could be more destructive of the concept of family than killing one’s own children.

Biological cognition. An example of biological determinism in secular journals is apparent in Steven David’s piece on Nature News, “Cognition: Neurons couple up to make decisions.” To evolutionists, neurons make decisions, not you. There is no “you” in there. All that is an illusion. Nice thing for parents to teach their children. Does science support that view?

Although Runyan and co-workers’ results are compelling, it remains to be proved whether coupling has a causal role in decision-making, or whether the phenomenon is generalizable across brain regions, species or behaviours. Readily available tools to manipulate neuronal activity and record subsequent activity changes in large neuronal populations provide a clear path to resolving these issues.

Marx of societal destruction. What the world needs now is love, sweet love – NOT sentimentality about the father of communism, Karl Marx. Yet Nature gives a positive new look at Marx’s demonic book, Das Kapital, that launched the bloodiest century in history. Reviewer Gareth Jones says nothing of genocide and the losses of liberty suffered in communist regimes. He doesn’t mention thousands of pastors shot in the head by Stalin’s goons. He doesn’t mention thousands of families broken up as fathers were hauled off to the Gulags in the middle of the night. He soft-pedals the relationship between Darwinism and Marxism, even though the two were ideological buddies who praised each other’s works.

Genetic tinkering with families. Big in the science news is the onward rush to tinkering with human genomes with the new gene editing tool, CRISPR/Cas9. As usual, the technology starts with noble motives, helping children with genetic diseases. Everybody knows the downside: designer babies, and new genetic divide between the haves and have-nots that could unleash a flood of discrimination and even eugenics. As usual, too, it’s technology first, ethics later.

• In US first, scientists edit genes of human embryos (Phys.org)
• First results from US CRISPR gene editing on human embryos (New Scientist)
• Scientists Edit Human Embryo: This Is Why Designer Babies Are a Ways Off (Live Science)
• Scientists edit human embryos to safely remove disease for the first time – here’s how they did it (Harper and O’Neill at The Conversation)
• Human embryo CRISPR advances science but let’s focus on ethics, not world firsts (Hannah Brown at The Conversation)
• Editing human embryos with CRISPR is moving ahead – now’s the time to work out the ethics (Jessica Berg, Phys.org)
• Attitudes on human genome editing vary, but all agree conversation is necessary (Medical Xpress)
• 11 organizations urge cautious but proactive approach to gene editing (Medical Xpress)

Everybody is worried, but nobody knows what to do, because evolution provides no ethics. Western civilization used to have a solid foundation: The Ten Commandments, and the Hippocratic Oath (do no harm). What foundation can Darwinism provide? Stuff happens?

We need to keep reminding everyone that the Creation-Evolution issue is not just a matter of science. It is an all-encompassing worldview that affects education, law, government, and even the family inside the walls of a private home. It also affects the church.

Jesus warned of the evil tree that produces evil fruit, saying, “You will know them by their fruits.” A good place to learn about that is Jerry Bergman’s new book, How Darwinism Corrodes Morality. Share this book with people who think origins is a side issue that doesn’t matter to the church or society.