‘Evolution made me do it!’
Editorial
Making excuses for sin is as old as Eden. The 1960s American comedian Flip Wilson
satirized a common (especially in the past) excuse with his trademark quip, ‘The
devil made me do it.’
Today, as the new fad of ‘evolutionary psychology’ takes root, Flip
might be saying, ‘Evolution made me do it.’ Evolutionary explanations
are highly fashionable for all manner of sin. Not long ago, Time magazine’s
cover story proclaimed, ‘Infidelity? It’s in your genes.’ The
story purported to give ‘reasons’ why our alleged evolutionary history
has programmed us to cheat on our spouses.
But it’s not just adultery. Cheating at school, or ruthlessness in business,
is easy to ‘explain’ in evolutionary terms — survival of the most
cunning and merciless ape-man or hunter-gatherer cave-dweller. But the problem for
evolution’s ‘true believers’ is, it’s just as easy to find
a story to explain the opposite behaviour. ‘Caring and sharing’ ape-men
enhance the whole group’s survival, and so such genes are more likely to be
passed on, even if only in one’s siblings or cousins.
Homosexuality is another area in which the fad for evolutionary explanations has
taken root. The research work suggesting a so-called ‘gay gene’ is now
regarded as suspect by just about everyone. But when it was fashionable, homosexual
tendencies were regarded as hard-wired into our DNA.1
In our evolutionized culture, this meant that an evolutionary explanation for homosexuality
had to be sought, too.
Finding one was a real brain-teaser — perverting the reproductive act is hardly
likely to get your genes passed on. But never underestimate the ingenious ways in
which reality can be moulded to fit a world-view. Someone soon postulated that in
caveman days, having homosexual uncles meant that there were more unattached adults
around to help grandparents raise the kids while Dad was off wrestling sabre-toothed
tigers with the ‘regular guys’. Thus, the genes in that whole group
were more likely to get passed on, including any ‘homosexual genes’
carried by non-homosexual relatives.
As has often been pointed out, however, a theory which is so flexible that it can
be used to ‘explain’ almost any outcome, in reality explains nothing.
That’s why this ‘evolutionary psychology’ fad makes some psychiatrists
remember when their profession, and society’s intelligentsia, were in the
grip of Freudian2 explanations
for virtually all behaviour. The symptoms are the same: refusing to be guided by
the Word of God, people sought an alternative, all-encompassing explanation for
the discordant feelings and behaviour shared by humanity since the Fall.
Freud’s framework seemed all-powerful, explaining everything about behaviour;
till some started to realize that this was in fact its weakness. Today, Freudianism
is widely regarded as an example of pseudoscience. Like evolution, everything ‘seemed
to fit’ because of the ‘world-view glasses’ through which all
the evidence was interpreted.3
Rape is the latest and one of the most serious sins to be assigned an evolutionary
explanation. Despite the protests of many (including definitely non-Christian objectors)
the view that rape is ‘natural’ — to be avoided, certainly, but
fully attributable to evolved instincts — is currently getting a strong world-wide
hearing.
By undermining the idea of absolute standards for behaviour (nobody made us, so
nobody owns us, thus nobody has a right to set any unchanging rules), evolutionary
thinking has already had a devastating impact on our culture. Sadly, the rise of
evolutionary psychology enhances this downward slide. What’s more, every time
people see something ‘explained’ in evolutionary terms in a way that
‘makes sense’, they tend to see this as a further ‘proof’
for evolution itself. This becomes a powerfully self-reinforcing cycle of delusion.
Creation magazine is one of the most effective tools in a Christian’s
armoury to help counter this trend. As it keeps spreading with
your help, many people are seeing the fallacies of evolution. Many wake up with
a jolt to the world as it really is; namely, that we are a fallen people, that sin
is real — rebellion against a holy God — and that we desperately
need the cleansing forgiveness of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
References and notes
- In a fallen world subject to mutational degeneration, there perhaps
may be some genetic predisposition to certain types of sin (in preference
to others). But even most ‘selfish gene’ enthusiasts stress that we
are not robots in thrall to our genes. We may have impulses towards certain types
of behaviour (childhood influences can also contribute to this), but we are ultimately
responsible for the choices we make. Return to text.
- Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a committed Darwinian, fathered
‘psychoanalysis’ with its heavy emphasis on sexuality, repressed unconscious
drives, etc. Freudian terms include the Oedipus complex, id, ego, and superego.
Return to text.
- Hunter gatherer blues, New Scientist 165(2227):50–51,
February 26, 2000. Return to text.
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