Received 2.1.2001

I just have one comment, in response to your "Debunking the Religious Monopoly on Morality," you over simplify the processes of the "fight or flight" response that is natural to us humans. If you look back at our history, humans have not always put the same value on life as we do today. The early churches have not been so caring and outgoing and loving as they are today either. You have yet to prove that morality did not start with God. My point is this: We as humans put more value on life than we did just 500 years ago, but this change hasn't come from evolution, it's too short of a time period. What caused the change? The only thing I can think of that has the greatest influence on our culture is Christianity and the teachings of God.

Jeffrey

My Reply:

Jeffrey, thanks for reading my essay.  I think you make a good argument, but here is why I disagree.

Did parents love their children less 500 years ago?  If a peer was in danger 500 years ago did people feel less compelled to help?  Who can say for sure, but it seems likely that these instincts have remained constant in recent history.  These are the kinds of gut reactions that involve our genes.  These instincts are at man's core in varying degrees, but from our birth we are subjected to constant cultural or memetic influences.

Here is what Richard Dawkins says about cultural changes over time in his book "The Selfish Gene."

"Cultural transmission is analogous to genetic transmission in that, although basically conservative, it can give rise to a form of evolution.  Geoffrey Chaucer could not hold a conversation with a modern Englishman, even though they are linked to each other by an unbroken chain of some twenty generations of Englishmen, each of whom could speak to his immediate neighbors in the chain as a son speaks to his father.  Language seems to 'evolve' by non-genetic means, and a rate which is orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution."

Man learns from his history in this same way and I'd like to use a powerful, but perhaps overused example.  When the war crimes of Nazi Germany were discovered nobody had to consult their Bible to see if they were wrong.  We have all seen photographs of piles of bodies that illicit instant gut responses.  This reaction is the genetic part of us.  The more sophisticated understanding that followed World War II is memetic.  We now have international war crime tribunals to put perpetrators on trial, such as with Rwanda and ex-Yugoslavia.  These memes are passed on from generation to generation just like in Dawkins' language example, continually evolving as we learn from our past.  Nobody can really know for certain what role Christian teachings have played in this memetic evolution.  It is worth noting, however, that only one-third of the world is Christian.  Have all the people who do not believe in the Christian God-- two-thirds of the earth-- had no improved understanding of the value of human life in the last 500 years?  It seems doubtful.  Also, Christianity has often been a reluctant participant in these changes as you point out in your note when you write, "early churches have not been so caring and outgoing and loving as they are today."

There are other areas that have exhibited this same sort of growth that are unrelated to religion and morality.  Think about man's perspective on the environment.  Roughly fifty years ago (in the United States anyway) throwing trash out a car window was only moderately frowned upon.  Today it is deemed unacceptable to throw recyclables in a trash can.  This change has nothing to do with Jesus.  Man is learning from his past.

Proving that the memetic mechanism of learning from our history did not start with God is rather like proving that God does or does not exist. There can be no conclusive arguments. What I tried to point out in my essay is that if there were no God, there would still be morality because populations that exhibit it survive better.  

I'll even submit that man's memetically evolving social conscience is pushing beyond Christian morality and thus creating some of the social conflicts we see today.  This is discussed in a letter I received earlier:

1.23.2001 Deborah, who is a Christian, tells me how man's pride and quest for all things physical has caused our world to decline.

Jeffrey, thanks for writing.