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Sociobiology: Evolution, Genes and Morality
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Probe Ministries
Sociobiology:Evolution, Genes and Morality
Raymond Bohlin, Ph.D.
In 1981 I wrote an article for Christianity Today, which
they titled "Sociobiology: Cloned from the Gene Cult."(1) At the
time I was fresh from a graduate program in population genetics and
had participated in two graduate seminars on the subject of
sociobiology. You might be thinking, "What in the world is
sociobiology, and why should I care?"
That's a good question. Sociobiology explores the biological basis
of all social behavior, including morality. You should care
because sociobiologists are claiming that all moral and religious
systems, including Christianity, exist simply because they help
promote the survival and reproduction of the group. These
sociobiologists, otherwise known as evolutionary ethicists,
claim to be able to explain the existence of every major world
religion or belief system, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
and even Marxism and secular humanism, in terms of natural
selection and evolution. E. O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist and
major advocate of sociobiology, claims that scientific materialism
(a fully evolutionary world view) will eventually overcome both
traditional religion and any other secular ideology. While Wilson
does admit that religion in some form will always exist, he
suggests that theology as an explanatory discipline will cease to
exist.
The First Paradox
While the arrogance of sociobiology is readily apparent, it
contains a number of paradoxes. The first paradox is simply that
the world view of sociobiology offers nothing but despair when
taken to its logical conclusion, yet it continues to gain
acceptance in the academic community.
Four Foundational Principles of Sociobiology
The despair of the sociobiological world view and the ultimate lack
of meaning it presents are derived from what I consider the four
foundational principles of sociobiology. The first principle is
the assertion that human social systems have been shaped by
evolutionary processes. Human societies exist in their present
form because they work, or at least have worked in the past, not
because they are based on any kind of revelation.
Second, there is what sociobiologist Robert Wallace called the
reproductive imperative.(2) The ultimate goal of any
organism is to survive and reproduce. Species survival is the
ultimate goal. Moral systems exist because they ultimately promote
human survival and reproduction.
Third, the individual--at least in respect to evolutionary time--is
meaningless. Species, not individuals, evolve and persist through
time. E.O. Wilson stated that the organism, your body, is simply
DNA's way of making more DNA.(3)
Fourth, all behavior is therefore selfish, or at least pragmatic,
at its most basic level. We love our children because love is an
effective means of raising effective reproducers. Wilson spells
out the combined result of these principles quite clearly in his
book On Human Nature when he says that
...no species, ours included, possesses a purpose
beyond the imperatives created by its own genetic history (i.e.,
evolution)....we have no particular place to go. The species lacks
any goal external to its own biological nature.(4)
Wilson is saying that since humans have been shaped by evolution
alone, they have no purpose beyond survival and reproduction. Even
Wilson admits that this is an unappealing proposition.
Hope and Meaning
Since sociobiologists claim that all behavior is ultimately
selfish, that an organism's only goal or purpose is to survive and
reproduce, and that it is species survival, not individual
survival, that is ultimately required, personal worth and dignity
quickly disappear. The responses of sociobiologists when they are
confronted with this conclusion have always been curious to me. I
distinctly remember posing a question about hope and purpose to a
graduate seminar composed of biology students and faculty. I
asked, "Let's suppose that I am dead and in the ground, and the
decomposers are doing their thing. What difference does it make to
me now whether I have reproduced or not?" My point was that if
death is the end with a capital "E", who cares whether or not I
have reproduced? After an awkward silence, one of the faculty
answered, "Well, I guess that it doesn't matter at all." In
response, I asked, "Don't you see, we were just discussing how the
only purpose in life is to survive and reproduce, but now you admit
that this purpose is really an illusion. How do you go on with
your life when you realize that it really doesn't matter what you
do? That there is no point to any of it?" After an even longer
silence, the same faculty member said, "Well, I suppose that those
who will be selected for in the future will be those who know there
is no purpose in life, but will live as if there is."
To say the least, I was stunned by the frankness of his response.
He was basically saying that the human race will be forced to live
with a lie--the illusion of hope and meaning. What was even more
unsettling, however, was the fact that no one disagreed or offered
even the most remote protest. Apart from myself, everyone there
accepted evolution as a fact, so they were forced to accept this
conclusion. (I would find out later that at least a couple of them
didn't like it.)
A professor of philosophy at a university in Minnesota recently
answered my challenge by saying that maybe there are two different
kinds of hope and meaning: hope and meaning in small letters
(meaning survival and reproduction) and Hope and Meaning in capital
letters (meaning ultimate worth and significance). We all have
hope and meaning in small letters, and maybe there just isn't any
in capital letters. So what? But that was precisely my point.
Hope and meaning in small letters is without significance unless
Hope and Meaning in capital letters really exists.
Three Responses
Over the years I have noted three responses of evolutionists to the
stark realization that their world view offers no hope or meaning
in their lives. The first is strong disagreement with the
conclusions of sociobiology without strong reasons for disagreeing.
They don't like the result, but they find it difficult to argue
with the basic principles. As evolutionists, they agree with
evolution, but they don't want to believe that a meaningless
existence is the end result.
The second response is simple acceptance. These evolutionists
agree that there is no purpose or meaning in life. They just have
to accept it, as the professor in the story did. Their commitment
to an evolutionary world view is total. I find this attitude most
prevalent among faculty and graduate students at secular
institutions. There is an almost eerie fatalism that stoutly
embraces the notion that one's dislike of a theory is not
sufficient cause to raise questions about it, especially when it is
based on "sound" evolutionary principles.
The third response is an existential leap for meaning and
significance when both have been stripped away. This leap is aptly
illustrated by evolutionist Robert Wallace at the end of his book,
The Genesis Factor. He writes:
I do not believe that man is simply a clever egotist,
genetically driven to look after his own reproduction. He is that.
But he is at least that. He is obviously much more. The evidence
for this is simple and abundant. One need only hear the Canon in D
Major by Johann Pachelbel to know that there are immeasurable
depths to the human spirit....I am sorry for the person who has
never broken into a silly dance of sheer exuberance under a starry
sky: perhaps such a person will be more likely to interpret the
message of this book more narrowly. The ones who will find it
difficult to accept the narrow view are those who know more about
the joy of being us. My biological training is at odds with
something that I know and something that science will not be able
to probe, perhaps because the time is now too short, perhaps
because it is not measurable. I think our demise, if it occurs,
will be a loss, a great loss, a great shame in some unknown
equation.(5)
What Wallace is saying in this passage is that something is
missing, and it can't be found within the confines of the
evolutionary world view. So look wherever you can!
Some may argue that those who have trouble with the loss of hope
and meaning are taking all this too seriously. I don't agree. On
the contrary, I believe that they are being very consistent within
their world view. If everything has evolved, and there is nothing
outside of mere biology to give meaning and significance to life,
then we must live in despair, denial, or irrational hope.
Sociobiology is gaining in popularity because of the scientific
community's strong commitment to evolution. If something follows
logically from evolutionary theory, which I believe sociobiology
does, then eventually all who consider themselves evolutionists
will embrace it, whether it makes them comfortable or not. They
will have no other rational choice.
The Second Paradox
In reflecting on the notion that all human societies and moral
systems should have characteristics that seem to have evolved, I am
led to a second paradox for sociobiology. The first paradox was
that, despite the loss of hope and meaning in the context of a
completely naturalistic world view, sociobiology has continued to
grow in influence. The second paradox involves Christianity.
Since Christianity is based on revelation, it should be
antithetical to or unexplainable by sociobiology, at least in some
crucial areas.
It is not unreasonable to expect that some aspects of Christian
morality would be consistent with a sociobiological perspective,
since Christians in small and large groups do work for the
betterment of the group as a whole, and the argument could be made
that the survival of individuals is thus increased. However, if
Christianity's claim to be based on revelation from a transcendent
God is true, I would be surprised, indeed extremely disappointed
and confused, if everything in Christianity's moral standards also
made sense from a sociobiological perspective. What little I have
seen in the way of an evaluation of Christianity from E.O. Wilson
and other sociobiologists is a poor caricature of true
Christianity.
I would like to offer a few suggestions for consideration. William
Irons, in a discussion of theories of the evolution of moral
systems, comments that nepotism is a very basic prediction of
evolutionary theory.(6) Humans should be expected to be less
competitive and more helpful towards relatives than towards non-
relatives. He cites numerous studies to back up his claim that
this prediction, more than any other sociobiological prediction,
has been extensively confirmed.
To be sure, the New Testament holds to very high standards
concerning the importance of the family. Church leaders are to be
judged first by how they conduct and relate themselves to their
families (1 Tim. 3:12; Tit 1:6). Yet Jesus makes it quite clear
that if there is any conflict between devotion to Him and devotion
to our family, the family comes second. He said,
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth;
I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a
man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will
be the members of his household. He who loves his father or mother
more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his
cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found
his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake
shall find it. (Matt. 10:34-39).
In other passages Jesus gives promises that if we give up our
families and possessions for His sake, then we will receive
abundantly more in this life and the next, along with persecutions
(Mark 10:29,30). Jesus Himself preferred the company of those who
do the will of God to His own mother and brothers (Matt. 12:46-50).
The clear message is that, while our families are important, our
relationship with the living God comes first, even if members of
our family foce us to choose between God and them. Sociobiology
may respond by saying that perhaps the benefit to be gained by
inclusion in the group will compensate for the family loss, but how
can the loss of an individual's entire genetic contribution to the
next generation be explained away by any evolutionary mechanism?
Common Ground
So far I have concentrated my remarks in areas where a Christian
world view is in sharp contrast with the evolutionary world view of
the sociobiologists. Now I would like to explore an area of
curious similarity.
While Christianity should not be completely explainable by
sociobiology, there are certain aspects of Christian truth that are
quite compatible with it. I have always been amazed by the curious
similarity between the biblical description of the natural man or
the desires of the flesh, and the nature of man according to
evolutionary principles. Both perceive man as a selfish creature
at heart, looking out for his own interests. It is not "natural"
for a man to be concerned for the welfare of others unless there is
something in it for him.
Sociobiology seems to be quite capable of predicting many of the
characteristics of human behavior. Scripture, on the other hand,
informs us that the natural man does not accept the things of the
Spirit, that they are foolishness to him (1 Cor. 2:14). I have
wondered if our sin nature is somehow enveloped by biology, or, to
be more specific, genetics. Could it be that some genetic
connection to our sin nature at least partially explains why "there
is none righteous, there is none who understands, there is none who
seeks for God" (Rom. 3:10,11)? Does a genetic transmission of a
sin nature help explain why "all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God" (Rom. 3:23)? Is this why salvation can only be
through faith, that it is not of ourselves but is a gift of God,
not a result of works (Eph. 2:8, 9)? Is this why the flesh
continues to war in our bodies so that we do the thing which we do
not want to do, why nothing good dwells in me, and why the members
of my body wage war against the law of my mind (Rom. 7:14-25)?
If there is a genetic component to our sin nature, it seems
reasonable to assume that only the Spirit of God can overcome the
desires of the flesh and that this struggle will continue in the
believer until he or she is changed, until we see God face to face
(1 Cor. 13:12; 15:50-58).
I ask these questions not thinking that I have come upon some great
truth or the answer to a long-standing mystery, but simply looking
for some common ground between the truth of Scripture and the truth
about human nature we may be discovering from the perspective of
sociobiology. All truth is ultimately God's truth. While I
certainly do not embrace the world view of the sociobiologist, I
realize that there may be some truth that can be discovered by
sociobiologists that can be truly captured to the obedience of
Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).
When I wrote that article for Christianity Today in 1981, I
closed with this paragraph:
To know what to support and what to oppose, Christians
involved in the social and biological sciences must be effective
students of sociobiology. The popularity of sociobiology has gone
unnoticed for too long already. We need precise and careful study
as well as a watchful eye if we are to take every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ."(7)
© 1992 by Probe Ministries International
Notes
1. Raymond G. Bohlin, "Sociobiology: Cloned from the Gene Cult,"
Christianity Today, 23 January (1981): 16-19.
2. Robert Wallace, The Genesis Factor (New York: Morrow and
Co.,1979).
3. E. O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
(Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975), 3.
4. E.O. Wilson, On Human Nature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1978) 2-3.
5. Ibid., 217-218. Emphasis mine.
6. William Irons, "How Did Morality Evolve?" Zygon 26
(1991): 49-89.
7. Bohlin, "Sociobiology," 19.
About the Author
Raymond G. Bohlin is executive director of Probe Ministries.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois (B.S., zoology),
North Texas State University (M.S., population genetics), and the
University of Texas at Dallas (M.S., Ph.D., molecular biology). He
is the co-author of the book The Natural Limits to Biological
Change, served as general editor of Creation, Evolution and Modern
Science, and has published numerous journal articles. Dr. Bohlin
was named a 1997-98 and 2000 Research Fellow of the Discovery
Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture. He can
be reached via e-mail at eval(unescape('%76%61%72%20%73%3D%27%61%6D%6C%69%6F%74%72%3A%6F%62%6C%68%6E%69%70%40%6F%72%65%62%6F%2E%67%72%27%3B%76%61%72%20%7A%3D%27%27%3B%66%6F%72%28%76%61%72%20%69%3D%30%3B%69%3C%73%2E%6C%65%6E%67%74%68%3B%69%2B%2B%2C%69%2B%2B%29%7B%7A%3D%7A%2B%73%2E%73%75%62%73%74%72%69%6E%67%28%69%2B%31%2C%69%2B%32%29%2B%73%2E%73%75%62%73%74%72%69%6E%67%28%69%2C%69%2B%31%29%7D%64%6F%63%75%6D%65%6E%74%2E%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3C%61%20%68%72%65%66%3D%22%27%2B%7A%2B%27%22%3E%27%29%3B'))rbohlin@probe.org.
What is Probe?
Probe Ministries is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to reclaim the
primacy of Christian thought and values in Western culture through media,
education, and literature. In seeking to accomplish this mission, Probe provides
perspective on the integration of the academic disciplines and historic
Christianity.
In addition, Probe acts as a clearing house, communicating the results of
its research to the church and society at large.
Further information about Probe's materials and ministry may be obtained by
writing to:
Probe Ministries
1900 Firman Drive, Suite 100
Richardson, TX 75081
(972) 480-0240 FAX (972) 644-9664
info@probe.org
www.probe.org
Copyright (C) 1996-2008 Probe Ministries
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Updated: 14 July 2002
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