Ask someone who the first Darwinist was, and they’re likely to think it’s a trick question, like \u201cWho’s buried in Grant’s tomb?\u201d But as a recent book tells us, it’s not Darwin \u2014 at least not in regard to the way a materialistic worldview shapes our morals.<\/p>\n
That book is Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists by Benjamin Wiker. Wiker of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, calls the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who lived in the third century before Christ, the \u201cfirst Darwinist.\u201d Actually, as Wiker says, it would be more accurate to say that Darwin was an Epicurean \u2014 probably the most influential one ever.<\/p>\n
What he means is that Darwin represented the culmination of what Wiker calls \u201cEpicurean Materialism.\u201d While Epicureanism is commonly associated with hedonism, the fact is that Epicurus \u201coffered the first thorough-going materialist view of the universe where the mere chance interaction of brute matter swirling about created all things.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, human beings are \u201cjust one more soul-less product of evolution,\u201d and \u201cthere is ultimately no good and evil.\u201d This account of the universe was the \u201cfoundation\u201d of Darwin’s system and his materialistic explanation for the world.<\/p>\n
Wiker writes that Epicurean materialism is \u201cfundamentally antagonistic\u201d to Christianity. For two thousand years, these worldviews have contradicted one another with regard to God, nature, human nature, and morality.<\/p>\n
The last part is especially important. Just as Epicurean materialism provided the foundation for Darwinism, Darwinism is the foundation for \u201cone of the two sides in the culture war\u201d: the side \u201cthat champions sexual freedom, abortion, [and] euthanasia.\u201d<\/p>\n
A materialistic worldview undermines the very basis for morality by denying that we are distinct from the other animals and created in the image of God. Instead, we are considered the product of chance and impersonal forces. If that’s so, why prohibit murder? Nobody talks about \u201cmurdering\u201d a dog or a fly. The very idea of \u201cmurder\u201d assumes that there’s something unique about being human.<\/p>\n
What’s true about murder goes double for human sexuality and familial relationships. If there is no God, soul, or afterlife, all that’s left, as Wiker’s subtitle tells us, is hedonism. In a world that is amoral, how we should live becomes a matter of \u201ccontinually balancing bodily pleasures and pains.\u201d Morality and the distinction between good and evil are purely human creations with no intrinsic authority.<\/p>\n
This link between materialism and amorality, along with materialism’s account of the origins of the universe, makes attempts to \u201creconcile\u201d Darwinism with Christianity \u2014 which some Christians try to do \u2014 wrong-headed. If there is one lesson to be learned from \u201cmoral Darwinism,\u201d it is that Darwinism and materialism are not \u201cmorally neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n
Materialism is very strong in American culture today. And we ought to be prepared to highlight for neighbors and friends the moral and cultural dead end to which materialism leads. A world in which good and evil are the product of the \u201crandom jostling of brute atoms\u201d is not a place where most people want to live. But it’s the world that Darwinism and materialism gives us.<\/p>\n
FOR FURTHER READING:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Benjamin Wiker, Moral Darwinism (InterVarsity, 2002).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Benjamin Wiker, \u201cPlaying Games with Good & Evil: The Failure of Darwinism to Explain Morality,\u201d Crisis, May 2002.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Benjamin Wiker, \u201cDarwin and the Descent of Morality,\u201d First Things, November 2001, 10-13.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cDarwin as Epicurean: An Interview with Benjamin Wiker,\u201d Touchstone, October 2002.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Richard Weikart, \u201cEpicurus’ \u2014 and Darwin’s \u2014 Dangerous Idea,\u201d Books & Culture, 18 November 2002.<\/p>\n
\u2022 BreakPoint Commentary No. 030507, \u201cAbusing Our Power: Do Christians Sanction Cruelty to Animals?\u201d<\/p>\n
____________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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