Blinded by Religion

Pope Ratzinger: “This evolutionary ethic that inevitably takes as its key concept the model of selectivity, that is, the struggle for survival, the victory of the fittest, successful adaptation, has little comfort to offer,” he wrote. “Even when people try to make it more attractive in various ways, it ultimately remains a bloodthirsty ethic.” (Quoted in the NY Times, Sept. 2, 2006)

This is false, both as a description of evolutionary theory--for over 40 years, scientists working within evolutionary theory have found the need to posit pro-social, non-bloodthirsty, traits in order to explain the development of certain behavioral traits in communal animals--and as description of the ethics people have thought evolutionary theory implies--for over 100 years, people inspired by evolutionary theory have thought it brings us together, calls for us to take care of one another, etc.

Now, I don't particularly agree with people who think evolution tells us how to live, nor do I particularly agree with people who think evolution tells us how not to live (e.g., not to be religious). But I think it would be better if critics, like Ratzinger, of the expansion of evolutionary theory into our moral lives got the science, and what people have thought followed from the science, right.