Can a naturalistic view of evolution explain human cognition?
Viewing evolution as produced
solely by survival of the fittest without involvement from God or any other
guiding force leaves no room for the development of cognition based on reality.[i] In fact, if one assumes survival of the
fittest as the only driving force, human emotion motivates the opposite
belief. A sense of purpose in life
motivates the desire to survive. Lack of
purpose greater than oneself encourages suicidal tendencies when failure makes
life seem useless.
If survival of the fittest is
the only driving force in what caused humanity, then human life has no
purpose. Again, if one assumes survival
of the fittest as the only driving force, then denying reality and believing in
a purpose in life promotes survival.
Thus, if humans developed
solely from survival of the fittest, then such development encourages denying
reality. If this is the case, then how
can we trust any of our knowledge as based on reality? In particular, can we trust a scientific
model that leads to the conclusion that our knowledge developed through a
process that encourages denying reality?
Sigmund Freud explained faith
in God as wishful thinking (The Future of
an Illusion, 1927). Jesse Bering in
his book, The Belief Instinct: The
Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life,[ii]
recognizes that even the person raised in an agnostic environment innately
feels that God exists.
Why do people have the desire
for God? Hunger drives a person to eat
and thirst to drink. Sexual desires
drive people to procreate. These desires
lead to a reality. Why did people
throughout the centuries have the desire to worship if it leads to denying
reality? Either humanity has no basis
for knowing reality, or something more significant than survival of the fittest
guided the development of human cognition and desire toward knowing
reality.
If we limit origin of human
life to survival of the fittest, then we commit intellectual suicide by
undermining cognition having a basis in reality. If we claim more than survival of the fittest
explains the origin of human life, then what does? Does that something else give us purpose in
life or an object worthy of worship?
God, as presented in Christianity, gives us purpose and a worthy object
of worship.
©2011 Perry Vernon Webb. You may
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"Answers to Some Philosophical Questions".
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