Discussion Board 2
Of the ethical views discussed in the bookAn Introduction to
Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom,authors McQuilkin and
Copan define evolutionary ethics as, “Our ethical beliefs have developed
through evolution to help us survive and reproduce.”[1]However, if our
ethical system is purely based on our desires to survive and reproduce,
then our ethical beliefs do not have a solid foundation in which they are
derived, but merely subjective to a given situation. McQuilkin and Copan
identify this issue with evolutionary ethics when they point out, “If we are
simply the products of naturalistic evolution and wired for survival, then
the beliefs we hold are produced by nonrational forces beyond our
control.”[2]Furthermore, though they may help one to survive, the
authors state, “there’s no reason to think they’re true.”[3]Therefore,
evolutionary ethics is a subjective ethical system in which no one knows
what is expected of them or others.
The issues that McQuilkin and Copan bring up about evolutionary
ethics are hardly overstated. Without an authoritative source, the
Scriptures for those possessing a Christian worldview, one’s ethics lacks
credibility when tested against the general norms. McQuilkin and Copan
explain, “a Godless universe simply does not have the resources to
account for important components required for the moral life—human
dignity and rights, free will, reason, conscience, duty.”[4]
Besides the issue discussed so far, evolutionary ethics is simply
not compatible with belief in God as the foundation of ethics. Even if one
was to agree that evolutionary ethics was a thing, that does not discount
God being the author of ethics through the process. Many of those who
promote an evolutionary system tend to hang their hat on the scientific
theory of the Bing Bang. However, even if that were true as well, the
matter that collided had to cause this theoretical solution to creation, the
matter had to come from somewhere. Genesis 1:1 states, “In the
beginningGod createdthe heavensand the earth.”[5]The earth was
formless and then God spoke (1:3). God would then create humanity in
His image, therefore, humanity contained the essence of God. McQuilkin
and Copan state, “When we understand that a good God is our Creator
and the cosmic authority and that we are co-rulers with God to care for
creation and to shape culture so that fellow humans may flourish, many
moral issues come into proper focus.”[6]Evolutionary ethics may be what
the individual goes through in their process of being sanctified in Christ,
however, biblical ethics are sourced by the author and creator of life.
[1]Robert McQuilkin and Paul Copan,An Introduction to Biblical
Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom,(Downers Grove: IVP Academic,
2013), 180.
[2]Ibid.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid., 182.
[5]Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is fromThe New
International Version.
[6]McQuilkin,An Introduction,182.
Bibliography
McQuilkin, Robert, and Paul Copan.An Introduction to Biblical Ethics:
Walking in the Way of Wisdom.Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2013.
