Atheism and Evil 22 October, 2010
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Os Guinness, Problem of Evil, Uncategorized.Tags: Atheism, Charles Darwin, Evil
trackback
“For Charles Darwin and all who make evolution and natural selection central to their view of life, realism constantly tends to collapse into pessimism, whatever their individual protestations of joy and hope in life. And the reason is simple. Not only is natural selection utterly blind to evil and suffering, but it favors the “selfish gene” and the survivalistic ethic of “might makes right” that is the evil heart of oppression and abuse of power. No account of twentieth-century evil can ignore its close kinship to the dark side of Nietzsche’s will to power.” — Os Guinness, “Unspeakable: Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil” pg. 130
You can find the book here.
“but it favors the “selfish gene” and the survivalistic ethic of “might makes right””
‘Might makes right’ is one of many survivalistic ethics. It tends not to be effective in the long run.
And whoever wrote that doesn’t seem to understand that the ‘selfish gene’ isn’t the gene for selfishness, but rather a description of what genes do and characterizing it as selfish to more easily understand. It’s about what genes do, not people.