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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2005
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Claim CA001:

Evolution is the foundation of an immoral worldview.

Source:

Moon, Rev. Sun Myung. 1990 (27 Mar.). Parents day and I. http://www.unification.net/1990/900327.html

Response:

  1. Evolution is descriptive. It can be immoral only if attempting to accurately describe nature is immoral.

  2. Any morals derived from evolution would have to recognize the fact that humans have evolved to be social animals. In a social setting, cooperation and even altruism lead to better fitness (Wedekind and Milinski 2000). The process of evolution leads naturally to social animals such as humans developing ethical principles such as the Golden Rule.

  3. Some bad morals, such as eugenics and social Darwinism, are based on misunderstandings of evolution. Therefore, it is important that evolution be taught well to negate such misunderstandings.

  4. Despite claims otherwise, creationism has its own problems. For one thing, it is founded on religious bigotry, so the foundation of creationism, by most standards, is immoral.

  5. Probably the most effective weapon against bad morals is exposure and publicity. Evolution (and science in general) is based on a culture of making information public.

  6. Scientists are their own harshest critics. They have developed codes of ethical behavior for several circumstances, and they have begun to talk about a general ethics (Rotblat 1999). Creationists have nothing similar.

  7. Some people feel better about themselves by demonizing others. Those people who are truly interested in morals begin by looking for immorality within themselves, not others.

References:

  1. Rotblat, Joseph. 1999. A Hippocratic Oath for scientists. Science 286: 1475.
  2. Wedekind, C. and M. Milinski. 2000. Cooperation through image scoring in humans. Science 288: 850-852. See also Nowak, M. A. and K. Sigmund, 2000. Shrewd investments. Science 288: 819-820.

Further Reading:

Huxley, T. H. H. 1894. Evolution and ethics. http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/CE9/index.html
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created 2001-2-18, modified 2003-9-1