I see nothing in Archer's post to warrant such an acrimonious response.
He simply states that shadows lurk in all of us - regardless of position, gender, race, etc. True statement.
The Christians will attribute this to our fallen nature, I think of it as evolutionary heritage. A heritage that can be overcome with our new found intelligence and self-awareness. With time maybe these shadows may disappear or at least fade as their value becomes of less propagation utility.
I once watched a National Geo film on Killer whales. The Killer whales convened once a year along the coast of an island known as a seal breading ground. As the young seals entered the water, the Killer whales waited and feasted. At times, some of the Killer whales would appear to play with the prey before devouring the young pups. Nature at work.
Towards the end of the film and the end of the breading period they filmed one strangling seal pup flailing in the sea, not having got the swimming thing down yet, and you thought - oh no here it goes again.
However, this time a Killer whale actually rescued the pup and “nosed” it back to shore. And I thought - hey that is intelligent thought taking pity on this poor pup. This was not altruism as may be explained by the selfish gene. The whale had no possible gain from doing this. The whale was satiated and overcame its instinctive response. Maybe, the beginnings of empathy were emerging in this intelligent creature. I suppose one could conjecture that this would be one more seal to dine on next year - maybe but it is a long shot and would unlikely benifit this one particular whale.
The point of this is, I believe, with the emergence of self-aware intelligence, life becomes more aware of the “knowledge of good and evil” and can overcome the shadows of its heritage, red in tooth and claw.
Edited by iceage, : speling