Mark I. Vuletic

Last updated 21 March 2008

Analysis

(i) Evolution teaches no such thing. The evolutionary history of life does reveal that humans are animals in the sense that they are a branch in the kingdom Animalia, but it is only creationists who add the "just." Our origin, whether the opulent origin of creationism, or the humble origin of evolution, does not change who we are now. Although many creatures have strange and fantastic abilities, humans possess the most sophisticated powers of all, powers that rest largely in our advanced ability to reason. That a distant ancestor walked on all fours, and that a very distant ancestor might (uncharitably) be characterized as mere slime, does not efface Shakespeare or Newton from the history of our world. There is a reason why scientists sometimes use the word "animal" in a paraphyletic sense that differentiates us from the rest of Animalia, and that reason has nothing to do with creationism, and everything to do with what evolution has made us.

(ii) What of evolutionary psychology, which seeks to explain our behavior by examining our animal origins? Christianity teaches that we are all unregenerate sinners from birth. Fundamentalists explain this by referring to our origin in Adam and Eve, the two people who originally fell from grace. Although this story supposedly helps us to understand why people behave immorally, it is not thought by fundamentalists to justify immoral behavior. Likewise, even if evolutionary psychologists are correct in trying to explain the source of immoral behavior by appealing to our animal roots, they are not thereby justifying such behavior. If anything, they are providing information which helps us to discuss moral issues intelligently and find effective solutions to truly problematic behavior. Nothing in evolutionary psychology denies humanity the power to overcome its deep evolutionary history, since we are not creatures of instinct alone, but have the ability to reflect and reason.