In the chapters from the week with regards to MQuilken and Copan’s
book, the authors start off by defining and elaborating on evolutionary
ethics. They define it as “our ethical belies have developed through
evolution to help us survive and reproduce.” This is an interesting point
and topic of conversation that they are trying to bring up. The idea that
human morality and life has adapted over time in order to improve and
progress humanity. Michael Ruse, an Evolutionary Ethicist, explains this
by saying, “we are moral because our genes, due to natural selection, fill
us with thoughts of being moral.” John Liptay on the other hand highlights
that an argument for evolutionary ethicist is such, “once we have affirmed
that morality has been adopted as the uniquely human strategy for
pursuing the biological ends of the species, nothing more can or needs to
be added.” This is an interesting idea and train of thought to think and
meditate on. When we are born we are, well as Christians believe, born
spiritually dead. Which means that all that we learn about life, morality,
and God is learned or adopted as spoken. We learn what is good or bad to
a degree.
Within the chapters in this week’s reading, McQuilken and Copan
share an extremely compelling argument challenging the concepts listed
above and in opposition to their own thoughts on evolutionary ethics.
They do their best to preset 4 big and main problems that would directly
be in opposition to the concept presented. Of course, the most compelling
and important of said points is that “God makes better sense of human
dignity, which we typically take for granted.” A better or more refined way
to say this is that human value and worth is better explained and
understood by being created in the image of a creator or a God who is
good then by just simply a product of biology and science by mere luck.
Truthfully, it makes more sense to believe in a creator then it does that
we are just a lucky bi-product of some science or biological break-through.
Out of the 4 points that is the one that resonated most with me. I do think
that the authors overstated their case but the amount of research, data,
and thought they put into it creates a good balance of thought.
Lastly, I want to hit on if Evolutionary Ethics and the belief in God
is compatible. I do think they are compatible in a few areas, but overall,
no major similarities. The biggest compatibility is their desire to answers
Life’s biggest question by ways of a creator. The key difference is
Evolutionary Ethics would say that the “earth” or Biology is the creator
while God is creator in the opposite option.
McQuilkin, Robert and Paul Copan. An Introduction to Biblical Ethics. IVP
Academics. 2013.
Ruse, Michael. The significance of evolution. Blackwell Publishing. 1993.
Liptay, John. Natural Law, Biological Knowledge, and the Claims of
Evolutionary Ethics. 2015.
