After reading McQuilkin and Copan’s writing about evolutionary ethics, I
see the third problem they listed as the most compelling. They wrote,
“why trust our beliefs at all if we are just the product of those material,
valueless, mindless processes?”[1](They go on to make another great
point to support this line of thinking by claiming that just because certain
morals might help us survive, that does not make it true.[2](The main
point of evolutionary ethics is that morals do not really exist, and that
ethics exist only for survival purposes. Unfortunately, this means that
there is no such thing as ethics because ethics will change based on the
vantage point of each individual. For example, a grocery store owner will
say that it is ethically wrong to steal from their store because it hurts their
chances of surviving and takes away the opportunity of others to
purchase those stolen goods. A homeless person who is starving would
not agree with that ethic by the same definition of evolutionary ethics,
because they need that food to continue to exist. In other words,
evolutionary ethics is counterproductive because its definition disproves
the reality of it possibly existing in a way that everyone would ever truly
agree. Evolutionary ethics is extremely short-sighted at best and chaotic
at its worst because one person’s ethical views will always have the
possibility of contradicting another person’s ethical stance.
((((((((((( McQuilkin and Copan do a good job of covering the subject and its
flaws without taking too much time on the issues. It is clearly and
succinctly defined, and the problems that surround evolutionary ethics are
addressed without taking too much time away from the rest of the book.
The issues with evolutionary ethics that are addressed in the book are
bound to come up when this subject is brought up, because some of these
arguments can even be had for those who are outside of the faith.
Evolutionary ethics is not theologically or rationally sound. It is partially
congruent with belief in God, only because God’s rules also happen to
help mankind survive. Unfortunately, this is where the agreement ends.
Ethics cannot be based on a sliding scale that will never be agreed upon,
since every person has their own opinion and agenda.
Word Count: 409
(
(Bibliography
(
McQuilkin, J Robertson, and Paul Copan.(An Introduction to Biblical Ethics:
Walking in the Way
of Wisdom. third ed. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, an imprint of InterVarsity
Press, 2014.
(
