In the Uncomfortable Talk Column of Catholic Peace Weekly, the writer gives us some of his thoughts on evolutionary theory.
Not long ago, he had a meeting with some scientists while planning a book. It was a place to discuss how to understand 'altruism' in science. All living creatures, including humans, act selfishly to preserve themselves and maintain the species. How can the altruistic act of yielding and sacrificing for others be ‘scientifically’ explained?
Even selfish creatures behave altruistically since they benefit themselves in the long run, according to evolutionary theory. Altruistic behavior is often observed even in animals with very low intelligence. However, humans have also developed various devices that encourage altruism to preserve the species and maintain society from an evolutionary perspective. It is also explained that human evolution has internalized altruism by inventing a moral god beyond external coercion such as laws and social norms.
He was uncomfortable with reducing all phenomena of humans and living systems to the theory of evolution. However, at the end of the discussion, he felt even more uncomfortable at the words of a scientist who majored in evolutionary psychology. "I don’t understand why people believe in God while accepting the theory of evolution. How could that be?" Even human altruistic behavior that is against the self-preservation instinct can be explained by the theory of evolution, but the question was why the existence of religion or God is necessary.
However, the theory of evolution is no different in that it attributes much to chance. It is the same as explaining the synthesis process of protein, which is the starting point of all life, by chance. In scientific knowledge based on causal necessity, 'coincidence' is in fact equivalent to not knowing. Is it more than a coincidence to believe that the part we don't know is God's creative act? All life is one day, and one word of God (Logos) is all it is! I don't believe I was born with it. The creation perspective of Genesis is a magnificent narrative that tries to explain the beginning of this world through faith. There is no rational explanation for the contradiction that otherwise there was nothing and now there is something. For example, science cannot explain what happened before the Big Bang. We cannot conceive of a state in which all existence is condensed and neither time nor space exists.
Leibniz, a philosopher in the 17th century, advocated the theory of predestined harmony. This theory states that even though the movement of everything seems to follow mechanical causality, it is the work of God that directs it toward goodness.
Richard Dawkins, a representative modern atheist, criticized intelligent design theory, saying that no watchmaker makes such clockwork and that if the clock runs accurately, it is only the blind and unconscious result of natural selection. We may be at a crossroads where we must choose whether the right deed, such as altruism, is directed towards God's purposes or blindly.
Fortunately, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, the Pope announced the opinion that evolution and creationism do not contradict each other. He said, "If you read the Bible, you can imagine God as a wizard with a magic wand, but that is not the case." It was a criticism of the claims of creation science and intelligent design theory that the earth is 6000 years old. Believing in evolution does not mean you have to give up your faith. Rather, it would be more reasonable to say that God granted humans freedom to explore the secrets of this world. We have used that freedom to develop our own wisdom for thousands and tens of thousands of years. Now we are only given the responsibility to develop that wisdom in a way that does not ruin our God-given lives.
