Evolutionary Explanation for Morality

Here's an essay I wrote 20 years ago and which, as I recall, was based on an essay I had written 10 years prior:
"An Evolutionary Basis for Morality", No webpage found at provided URL: http://members.aol.com/dwise1/religion/morality.htmlFor unreciprocated altruism, there's this response I had to a creationist and a father who had expressed the belief, and insisted on it emphatically, that if the Bible is not completely and absolutely true then it would make no difference how he lived his life:

quote:

---

>>The point I was trying to make in my original email is that is if the Bible is NOT (accurate and literal) then I don't see what difference it makes (to me) once I'm dead how I lived life.<<

​

[mental spray-take]

​

Completely and utterly and blatantly untrue. I just cannot comprehend how anybody could seriously think such a thing!

​

First, if there is an after-life but your biblical literalism simply got it wrong, then it would still be highly probable that how you lived your life would have a DIRECT effect on what will happen to you once you're dead. True, you'd be very surprised with it, once the Maya had worn off, but then I truly believe that if an after-life exists then a lot of people are going to be very surprised, especially evangelical Christians.

​

Second, even if there is no after-life, how you had lived your life would STILL matter, long after you're dead. Why are you thinking only of yourself? You are a FATHER, a parent! Even if there is no heaven nor hell nor next life for you to go to when you die, how you lived would still matter very much. How you raised your children. How you treated others. Whether you helped or hindered them. What you built; what kind of legacy you left behind. All that matters very much!

​

At my father's memorial service, I mentioned what we had learned of the ancient Germanic beliefs as brought out by the Hildebrandtslied [**] and I pointed out that our county was filled with his legacy (he was a master carpenter) and that his memory would live on through the family that he had raised and through their families and so on, for long after his death. It still matters how he had lived his life!

​

[** Footnote: The Hildebrandtslied (Song of Hildebrandt) is the oldest piece of Germanic literature known to us It tells the story of an aging warrior, Hildebrandt, about to do battle with a much younger warrior. As was customary, they told each other about themselves, the younger one first. As the younger warrior introduced himself, Hildebrandt realized that he was his own son. This created a dilemma for him, because a Germanic warrior gained immortality in one of two ways: through his reputation and the tales of valor that the other warriors would tell of him and through leaving behind sons to carry on his name. Whichever action he took next, he would lose immortality. We do not know what happened next, since we only have a fragment of the poem.]

​

But let's go back to the subject line of your email: "RE: If evolution is right... ". If evolution is right and our bodies are little more than a way for our genes to reproduce themselves, then it STILL matters VERY MUCH how we live our lives. Because if we do not produce offspring and provide for them in such a way as to enhance their survival and their ability to produce their own offspring, thus propogating our genes into the future, then we will have failed. That includes ensuring that society and community will be able to enhance their survival, thus benefitting the entire gene pool we are a part of. How we live our lives affects the propogation of our genes, so it still matters. In fact, it matters even more, because it directly affects ALL future generations. It cannot matter much more than that!

​

But let's return to your selfish perspective, your asking "but what's in it for ME?". Why bother to live a life worth living? Sounds so ridiculous, once you actually ask the question, doesn't it? And the answer sounds so obvious: because living such a life is worth it! How could anybody really think that it doesn't matter?

---

---

{When you search for God, y}ou can't go to the people who believe already. They've made up their minds and want to convince you of their own personal heresy.
("The Jehovah Contract", AKA "Der Jehova-Vertrag", by Viktor Koman, 1984)And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade,
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made,
Or study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand.
The profoundest act of worship is to try to understand.
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,
The truth has left its living word for anyone to read.
So turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world.
(filk song "Word of God" by Dr. Catherine Faber, No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.echoschildren.org/CDlyrics/WORDGOD.HTML)