“Do you hear that, friends? Old World monkeys! According to Bertram Cates, we don’t even descend from good American monkeys!”
–Matthew Harrison Brady, in Inherit the Wind
Some people find it demeaning to think that human beings are more like other animals than unlike them. They find insulting the proposition that rather than being in a category all our own, uniquely created in the image of God, we are “merely” ape-like animals with big brains, arguably advanced cognitive capabilities, and sophisticated social structures. This supposed affront to our dignity helps fuel rejection of the scientific theory of evolution.
It seems to me this view has it all backward. Acknowledging our evolutionary origins and our likeness to other animals can help us understand human wrongdoing without having to resort to an even more insulting explanation: namely, that we are all “wicked” (Matthew 7:11), born stained by “original sin,” all inherently worthy of eternal punishment. That seems way more insulting than considering ourselves close cousins of our fellow inhabitants here on earth.
And when we understand evolution, we can begin to understand how it is humans can do so much horrific stuff, without having to label ourselves “evil,” “wicked,” or deserving of eternal punishment. As our compadre Peter put it in a recent comment, “There are two programs running at the lowest levels of the human brain: The most primitive is the one that caused our earliest ancestors to thrive from being selfish and looking after their own interests. Layered over that is the social one that enabled our subsequent ancestors to live in groups. These two are always in conflict with one another. At the lowest level, we are wired to look after ourselves first. At the higher level, we are wired to look after those who will help us survive (other members of our group).” I could quibble with some details of how he describes this, but the core idea is solid: Evolution has selected both for traits that are aggressive and antisocial, and for traits that are cooperative and prosocial. This is our inheritance, and it’s in our interest to learn to manage it better than we do currently.
Questions:
- Is it more insulting to think of ourselves as inherently wicked, or as closely related to other animals?
- Do we need the concept of “evil” if we understand that evolution selected in us traits that dispose us to horrific acts as well as awe-inspiring goodness?
- What would change if we thought of aggression and antisocial acts as problems to be managed rather than the result of some cosmic force?