The Top Ten Myths About Evolution
Coming from Prometheus Books in November 2006
by
Cameron McPherson Smith and Charles Sullivan

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Myth 1:
Survival of
the Fittest

Myth 2:
It's Just a
Theory

Myth 3:
The Ladder
of Progress

Myth 4:
The Missing
Link

Myth 5:
Evolution is
Random

Myth 6:
People Come from
Monkeys

Myth 7:
Nature's Perfect
Balance

Myth 8:
Creationism
Disproves Evolution

Myth 9:
Intelligent Design
is Science

Myth 10:
Evolution
is Immoral

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in
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All material copyright the authors or Prometheus Books, unless otherwise indicated.

Myth Ten: Evolution is Immoral

Myth Ten, Evolution is Immoral, explores the moral implications of evolution, showing how the theory has been distorted to support the ideology that might makes right, and how many of our moral sentiments may have evolutionary roots. An excerpt is found below:


We can ask not just whether organisms found in nature are good for us, but whether certain human behaviors that are considered natural are also good. Displays of aggressive behavior seem to be quite natural among many animals. Humans can also behave aggressively, and this behavior with its accompanying emotions is surely an evolutionary inheritance, what we sometimes call our animal nature. We can confidently say that aggressive behavior is natural for humans, unlike, say, eating with a fork or chopsticks, which are cultural options. But if acting aggressively is natural, we can ask if it's a morally good thing. There may be cases when aggression is good or at least morally justifiable, as when a mother acts with hostility toward someone who poses a threat to her children. But all of us have been in a bad mood or have just had a bad day, and we've all lashed out at someone for no good reason. In such cases acting aggressively would not be morally good behavior.

There are a host of natural or animal impulses and behaviors, such as anger, jealousy, fear, and lust, that can affect how we treat others, and it's obvious that acting on these feeling is not always a good thing morally.

If it could be shown--however unlikely--that rape and murder were natural human behaviors that are part of our evolutionary inheritance, we can still ask whether these behaviors are morally good. It should be clear--to most of us, at least--that these sorts of behaviors are morally wrong. Therefore, it would be incumbent on us to combat them by teaching children from an early age to resist the urge to act on such impulses.

Ultimately, we must reject the assumption that just because something is natural, or even a result of biological evolution, that it must be good and worthy of imitation. Thanks to culture, humans are rather flexible and adaptive, and we can learn to resist many unethical behavioral tendencies that may have an evolutionary basis.


Excerpt from The Top 10 Myths about Evolution by Cameron McPherson Smith and Charles Sullivan, pp. 157-158, (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books). Copyright (C) 2007 by Cameron M. Smith and Charles Sullivan. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.