Hi there,
So I've given a lot of thought to Evolution, been told I don't understand the theory, been told I am looking for things that aren't there (like morality), been told you don't have to really believe Evolution - it just is -, been told it always happens, even though there's no real evidence that it does and I've come to the conclusion that there is in fact a moral backbone to the theory, it's just that no one has fleshed it out. So here goes.
You've heard of breaking the odds, right? Or defying the odds? Where you have a certain probability of success and its not very high, but you try and you succeed and then you share the spoils with others? That's sort of the model of morality that I think Evolution espouses. The reason you don't see it fleshed out is that the arrogance of most people that believe Evolution is that they break the odds all the time, that just being human is a kind of proof that the odds have been broken and will be broken again. This arrogance I think, is what gets in the way, since if you think about what it means to break the odds, there is actually a reason to stay morally motivated.
For one thing, no one breaks the odds without first sitting down and working out their best trajectory, right? I mean Jesus said this "if you are going to build a tower or go to war, you think about it first" (something like that). The reason for this is simple, there are some things that no matter how good you think you are, you just won't be able to do it, and the more that you spend time and effort trying to conquer it, the less energy you'll have for anything else. This is breaking the odds, sitting down and calculating the cost of each alternative and beginning a trial and error process of conquest, once you know that something is surmountable. Once you start, it doesn't happen at any particular rate, and in fact the more help you can get the better.
Getting help is in fact key, because if you've broken the odds, chances are, someone else will thankyou for the time its taken to calculate that victory can be had in some degree if they join in. Now, there's a payoff here, in that if you break the odds down completely, other parties may know too much, but on the other hand, you want their trust, so once again, you break the odds and you tell them as much as they can: you have their confidence, and so once again you are more likely to succeed. This is reflected in the Good Samaritan story, I think, although what you see is someone foreseeing the good that another may do, down the track and reaching out for it ahead of time.
Once you have help, the odds are still largely stacked against you, if not now then in eternity, so once again you need to do some calculations: who has the best strength, who will most likely survive, when will you most likely get victory. This takes cunning, since you don't know what particular way breaking the odds will work out for you, how many strategies you will need, how much determination you will have to have, anything that will give you the edge is much needed, since you may indeed have to keep restrategizing right to the end. So it is that strategies like the equal payment of the landowner to everyone working on the land come to the fore, since if everyone is getting the same pay, you are most able to foresee a strategy that will benefit everyone.
So far so good right? Right so it is you come to the final stage where you actually defy the odds, this is where the morality of the whole thing of breaking the odds comes to the fore, since once you have won the day, there is no real reason to share the spoils with anyone, is there? But hang on, so far all you've done is break the odds at each successive stage, wouldn't it make sense to defy the odds and break them once again. So it is that you share the spoils, and everyone comes to see the challenge you faced, both now and as you once did: a win for everyone. So like the tree that bears no fruit, you have received the benefit of experience and grown fruit after all, because someone foresaw that your victory was shallow, if you did not see it through and they dug around you and fertilized you and now you are producing fruit by sharing your victory with others, allowing you to break the odds once and for all, and go on to defy the odds altogether for all time. Hooray.
Now, all of this is moral, right? And what is the one difference between what I presented at what Evolution would present? That it happens over generations. But wait a minute, you say, what was that business of someone foreseeing the victory was shallow? That's God: in this picture, God is like the fulfilment of every odd broken for us and He is the one that is there in the beginning saying "breaking these odds is possible, I have done it and am with you" He is the one that is there when you are getting help, saying "I see the victory in these others also, together you will multiply your chances of success", He is the one that is there when you are wondering how you will keep everyone focussed saying "pay everyone the same and they will know with one accord what to expect, then you can harness the power of your solidarity with me", God is there! God is at the end saying "now you have won, but what will you do with your victory, do you not need to share it somehow?" because He has faced the end Himself and knows to share with others that the fruit of the victory itself may be multiplied, thus even God defies the odds.
Yes, you are now thinking, but Evolution says we have to lose. Rubbish! Do you not know that a semblence of everything you believe is in your seed? Do you not know that foreknowing what you seed will inherit enables you to break the odds ahead of time? Do you not know that even as you believe, your seed believes that you believe, believing that it believes even as you believe, thus making everything you believe every second progressively more in tune with the odds you are trying to break? The odds are in your favour! If only you will work together!
So it is from this you have a whole list of do's and don'ts that either help or hinder breaking the odds: the makings of morality. Do forsee strength in others and you will gain a multiplier. Do forsee agreement between people and you will gain a multiplier. Do share the spoils once you get them and you will gain a multiplier. Do stick to the plan you first start with and you will gain a multiplier. Enough multipliers will give you the victory! Don't refuse to sit down and weigh the consequences. Don't pass over the value of others. Don't cheat others their pay. Don't keep all the rewards to yourself. All moral rules: all from just determining to break the odds (consistently).
So what is Evolution saying about all this? Well, you don't need to think about the past: you might as well have been a monkey (you weren't but Evolution likes to move on from the past by joking that you could have been), so your time is best spent trying to break the odds; mutation will help you break the odds, at least temporarily (don't do it too much or you will get cancer or worse); the future is completely dependent on your commitment now, but that doesn't mean the outcome will be predictably the same as everybody else's (if you can harness the differences in others soon enough that you are not all expecting the same thing by the time you start working together), in other words keep breaking the odds and things will change; the ones with the most multipliers will have the most say in future, survival of the fittest (but also ultimatley growth of the most cooperative, in the end), collect every multiplier you can and breaking the odds will be easier. Phew! Not exactly as helpful as it could be, but in a way, exactly what you need to hear, almost too much so really.
So basically, I don't know, there is more than enough room to give Evolution a moral dimension if you really want to.
Discuss.
So I've given a lot of thought to Evolution, been told I don't understand the theory, been told I am looking for things that aren't there (like morality), been told you don't have to really believe Evolution - it just is -, been told it always happens, even though there's no real evidence that it does and I've come to the conclusion that there is in fact a moral backbone to the theory, it's just that no one has fleshed it out. So here goes.
You've heard of breaking the odds, right? Or defying the odds? Where you have a certain probability of success and its not very high, but you try and you succeed and then you share the spoils with others? That's sort of the model of morality that I think Evolution espouses. The reason you don't see it fleshed out is that the arrogance of most people that believe Evolution is that they break the odds all the time, that just being human is a kind of proof that the odds have been broken and will be broken again. This arrogance I think, is what gets in the way, since if you think about what it means to break the odds, there is actually a reason to stay morally motivated.
For one thing, no one breaks the odds without first sitting down and working out their best trajectory, right? I mean Jesus said this "if you are going to build a tower or go to war, you think about it first" (something like that). The reason for this is simple, there are some things that no matter how good you think you are, you just won't be able to do it, and the more that you spend time and effort trying to conquer it, the less energy you'll have for anything else. This is breaking the odds, sitting down and calculating the cost of each alternative and beginning a trial and error process of conquest, once you know that something is surmountable. Once you start, it doesn't happen at any particular rate, and in fact the more help you can get the better.
Getting help is in fact key, because if you've broken the odds, chances are, someone else will thankyou for the time its taken to calculate that victory can be had in some degree if they join in. Now, there's a payoff here, in that if you break the odds down completely, other parties may know too much, but on the other hand, you want their trust, so once again, you break the odds and you tell them as much as they can: you have their confidence, and so once again you are more likely to succeed. This is reflected in the Good Samaritan story, I think, although what you see is someone foreseeing the good that another may do, down the track and reaching out for it ahead of time.
Once you have help, the odds are still largely stacked against you, if not now then in eternity, so once again you need to do some calculations: who has the best strength, who will most likely survive, when will you most likely get victory. This takes cunning, since you don't know what particular way breaking the odds will work out for you, how many strategies you will need, how much determination you will have to have, anything that will give you the edge is much needed, since you may indeed have to keep restrategizing right to the end. So it is that strategies like the equal payment of the landowner to everyone working on the land come to the fore, since if everyone is getting the same pay, you are most able to foresee a strategy that will benefit everyone.
So far so good right? Right so it is you come to the final stage where you actually defy the odds, this is where the morality of the whole thing of breaking the odds comes to the fore, since once you have won the day, there is no real reason to share the spoils with anyone, is there? But hang on, so far all you've done is break the odds at each successive stage, wouldn't it make sense to defy the odds and break them once again. So it is that you share the spoils, and everyone comes to see the challenge you faced, both now and as you once did: a win for everyone. So like the tree that bears no fruit, you have received the benefit of experience and grown fruit after all, because someone foresaw that your victory was shallow, if you did not see it through and they dug around you and fertilized you and now you are producing fruit by sharing your victory with others, allowing you to break the odds once and for all, and go on to defy the odds altogether for all time. Hooray.
Now, all of this is moral, right? And what is the one difference between what I presented at what Evolution would present? That it happens over generations. But wait a minute, you say, what was that business of someone foreseeing the victory was shallow? That's God: in this picture, God is like the fulfilment of every odd broken for us and He is the one that is there in the beginning saying "breaking these odds is possible, I have done it and am with you" He is the one that is there when you are getting help, saying "I see the victory in these others also, together you will multiply your chances of success", He is the one that is there when you are wondering how you will keep everyone focussed saying "pay everyone the same and they will know with one accord what to expect, then you can harness the power of your solidarity with me", God is there! God is at the end saying "now you have won, but what will you do with your victory, do you not need to share it somehow?" because He has faced the end Himself and knows to share with others that the fruit of the victory itself may be multiplied, thus even God defies the odds.
Yes, you are now thinking, but Evolution says we have to lose. Rubbish! Do you not know that a semblence of everything you believe is in your seed? Do you not know that foreknowing what you seed will inherit enables you to break the odds ahead of time? Do you not know that even as you believe, your seed believes that you believe, believing that it believes even as you believe, thus making everything you believe every second progressively more in tune with the odds you are trying to break? The odds are in your favour! If only you will work together!
So it is from this you have a whole list of do's and don'ts that either help or hinder breaking the odds: the makings of morality. Do forsee strength in others and you will gain a multiplier. Do forsee agreement between people and you will gain a multiplier. Do share the spoils once you get them and you will gain a multiplier. Do stick to the plan you first start with and you will gain a multiplier. Enough multipliers will give you the victory! Don't refuse to sit down and weigh the consequences. Don't pass over the value of others. Don't cheat others their pay. Don't keep all the rewards to yourself. All moral rules: all from just determining to break the odds (consistently).
So what is Evolution saying about all this? Well, you don't need to think about the past: you might as well have been a monkey (you weren't but Evolution likes to move on from the past by joking that you could have been), so your time is best spent trying to break the odds; mutation will help you break the odds, at least temporarily (don't do it too much or you will get cancer or worse); the future is completely dependent on your commitment now, but that doesn't mean the outcome will be predictably the same as everybody else's (if you can harness the differences in others soon enough that you are not all expecting the same thing by the time you start working together), in other words keep breaking the odds and things will change; the ones with the most multipliers will have the most say in future, survival of the fittest (but also ultimatley growth of the most cooperative, in the end), collect every multiplier you can and breaking the odds will be easier. Phew! Not exactly as helpful as it could be, but in a way, exactly what you need to hear, almost too much so really.
So basically, I don't know, there is more than enough room to give Evolution a moral dimension if you really want to.
Discuss.
