If evolution is true, murdering another is not wrong, it is natural.
Scientists and others who infer from natural evidence a divine creator often face the accusation of “using science to push a religious viewpoint.” What are we do make of such an accusation?
Recently on our Facebook page (Creation Reformation World) we found this comment from a reader: “You are deceptively trying to push a religious view by hiding it in scientific rhetoric.” We find such comments fascinating and odd at the same time. Fascinating because we are not deceptively trying to push any view; we openly proclaim to all a view of truth that leads to the God of the Bible as the creator. Odd because the implication is that a “religious view” must be inherently unscientific at best, and definitively false at worst.
Are religious views inherently unscientific? What if the truth of a matter also happens to align with a religious view? Does such an alignment nullify truth?
Let’s take an example that most people would agree with as an expression of “truth” related to what we call murder: It is wrong for one human being to intentionally kill another innocent human being.
Is this a religious view? Is it a scientific view? Is it both?
For most religions, the religious view of murder seems relatively straightforward. In the historical Jewish and Christian religions our example expression of truth derives from the Bible. Jews and Christians base the truth of our example expression on the nature of God as reflected in the Bible’s teachings.
But what about the so-called scientific view? Can our example expression of truth derive from current evolutionary biology? How could it? If evolution is true, then killing of others is not only encouraged, it is the driving force of progress. One human being murdering another innocent human being is exactly what natural selection describes: the stronger killing the weaker, the smarter killing the dumber, the faster killing the slower.
The label “wrong” simply does not attach; there is no right or wrong in nature if evolutionary theory is true.
By modern sensibilities natural selection seems not only wrong, but brutal in its amoral workings in nature. But what is brutality to truth? We may call murder brutal; nature does not care.
On what basis, then, can the evolutionary view of human beings support any truth other than this: It is natural for one human being to intentionally kill another innocent human being.”
Embracing or rejecting a truth proposition because it aligns with one or the other of a scientific or religious view can be tricky business: it works both ways.
We choose to seek scientific truth wherever and however it can be found. This allows us to freely embrace science even if it supports and aligns with Biblical religious views. And we can freely reject science when it leads to false and repugnant views that offend our God-given sensibilities.
Think about it.
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