EDITOEIALS
7
Evolution’s Hidden Philosophy
By: Matthew Peak
For the most part, evolution has been
accepted as a scientific fact and taught as such
in classrcK>ms and assumed as such on college
campuses. Some have argued that it is merely
theory and others would contend that is still a
hypothesis. Against the possibility of intelli
gent design or direct creation, it is used almost
like a weapon.
What has not been considered is that
evolution as an idea has used biological science
to justify what is essentially a philosophy.
As a scientific hypothesis, or even theo
ry, evolution’s idea that all exist as products of
random chance and natural forces leaves man
kind in a perpetual state of chaos and opens the
door for great amounts of life or great amounts
of death and both equal within the idea. The
creation of a controlled society to promote
the health and well-being of citizens could be
considered to be a valid evolutionary step as
can sending a large portion of that population
to concentration camps to perfect that society.
In such a state of existence, there is no good or
evil. A group of people who promote their exis
tence by men raping women can be considered
just another part of our evolutionary process
as can people choosing marriage and mutual
submission within a family. It is not about right
or wrong, good or evil, positive or negative.
Everything that happens, from a person saving
someone’s life to a person taking their own life,
is all part of the process.
Evolution, though, has been made to sift
what is good from what is evil, what is right
from what is wrong. People instinctively know
that living in such a chaotic world is unfea
sible. Most people would say that a couple who
produces children through marriage is good
and most people would say that raping women
to regularly produce children is bad. So there
is an effort to find a good and an evil to differ
entiate between what is and is not acceptable,
but without belief in any sort of transcendent
standard.
This need for a separation of what is
good and evil has given rise to a philosophy
that states evolution always produces positive
growth. There is a presumption that humanity
is consistently growing towards perfection and
that only those events that make us better are
evolutionary. We see this idea is everyday life,
though we may not recognize it. For example,
if a rock band starts out as poor song writers
and five CDs later they sound much better,
they are said to have “evolved.” Wherever we
perceive improvement, we immediately say a
person, place or thing has “evolved.” Included
in this line of thinking is the pagan idea that
man is essentially good, as opposed to cursed
by original sin.
The primary problem with this is that
evolution uses biological science to support its
claims and science, by definition, is concerned
with facts and information and is incapable of
answering life’s big questions. The current
popular philosophy states that small changes
through random chance and natural forces
over an extraordinary long time (i.e. billions of
years) shaped our immense and complex world.
Now that philosophy has shifted into rejecting
war and death as against evolution and peace
and life as promoting evolution. The reason
people have bought into it, whether consciously
or not, is that educated voices have come out
with vast amounts of information to proclaim
it as truth and we believe that educated men
and women have something that the rest of
us do not. So we trust them and accept what
they have to say. These same voices argue that
religious thought can promote evolution but
religious belief causes war and therefore, faith
goes against evolution. So Christians try to be
a little less “fundamentalist” by not believing in
the very religion they claim to follow.
Behind it all, though, there is the fianda-
mental conflict over two vital questions: First
concerns the existence of deity (God) and the
second wrestles with what state man is in. In
the evolution worldview, there is no God (and if
there is. He is not involved in the affairs of this
world) and man is in a natural state of imperfec
tion, but basically good. So, we are constantly
striving to “evolve,” to move a little closer to
perfection. We look at our world and constantly
wrestle, philosophically, about what promotes
and hinders our evolution as a global humanity.
What we do not really look at is that we still do
not have a solid, objective standard for deter
mining what is right or wrong, what promotes
or hinders evolution, other than power With
evolution, might makes right. People who
live by the ideas of evolution are willing t^
empower those who are more highly evolved
through government and education and trust
that the more powerful the government and the
vaster the amount of knowledge the farther we
will climb the evolution ladder out of the “dark
ages.” Conversely, it also becomes acceptable
to view as undesirable those who are not as
evolved and in today’s world, the difference is
being drawn along the line between Christianity
and Humanism so that a person who believes in
God is less evolved that one who does not
For example, take two people. First is a
person with PhD who believes the Bible is the
word of God, that the world was created in six
literal days and that a resurrected Christ will
one day return. Second is a person with a PhD
who believes the Bible is just a text, the world
evolved over eons and the story of Christ is just
that, a story. Which would be considered more
highly evolved?
To contrast this, Christianity argues
that God exists (and is involved in our world)
and that mankind exists in a dangerous state in
which the initial inclination of human nature
is evil Standards for good and evil are sifted
as what goes with or against the nature of God
(revealed through His law, the Ten Command
ments). For example, the nature of God is mer
cy, but the natural state of man is cruelty. The
nature of God is forgiveness, but the nature of
man is vengeance The nature of God is labor
and order while the nature of man is laziness
and disorder The Puritans and other Christians
of early America, as tragically flawed as they
were but before Darwin, understood this clearly.
It is why they created a Constitution guarantee
ing freedom and a government with numerous
checks and balance. They understood that
fallen humans empowered become tyrants and
do it naturally.
So we are in a major battle of philoso
phies On one hand is the idea that mankind
is basically good and constantly improving via
evolution On the other is the belief that man
kind is basically evil and in constant need of
help from God to overcome their natures. The
defining factor will be power and time. We will
empower to be our leaders those who follow the
philosophy of evolution and trust that the power
they surround themselves with, power that
continues to grow, will be used for our good,
for the continued evolution of our lives. To this
end, followers of evolutionary philosophy view
a globd, united world as a major step forward
in the evolution of mankind, if not perfection
itself They also think the same with ideas like
feminism, atheism and socialism. The ends, the
evolution of man, justify whatever means are
needed, savgo^E^iand deiath, .though tho^e two
options also eventually;become a/i option. This
is why Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union
the “Evil Empire.” He understood that com
munism was attempting to empower of the evil
inherent in man.
Our founding fathers, whether they were
deists or not, understood that human nature is
the last thing that should be empowered in our
world, especially through government. They
understood that only a people who recognized
their fallen state and labored to daily depend
on Christ for redemption from their innate evil
could produce a free nation. The opposite was
tyranny and that is where evolutionary philoso
phy is leading us.
The Small Things In Life: A Reflection
By: Melissa Whittaker
It’s the end of the semester when proj
ects and papers are soon to be due. The stress
builds for many; small, unimportant things
become annoying and ailments rise in and
around the dorms. For the seniors, like myself,
graduation is just around the comer, after the
last round finals we will take in an undergradu
ate college. The next path will take some to
graduate school and others into the workforce.
Lately I have been stressed over some
projects that are due in the next few days. It
has caused me to feel a bit down when I worry
about whether or not I’ll finish the projects on
time and wondering about how well I’ll do on
them. I’m a sensitive person and will some
times cry over the small things. I bottle things
up inside and when passed by a friend or even
a faculty member who says “hello, how are
you” I mention the usual “I’m good.” This is
an automatic answer Aat I am sure many oth
ers answer with, too, even if you aren’t feeling
100% “good” that day.
I have also been worrying a bit about what
I am going to do after graduation, which is ap
proaching fast. Will I find a job in the theatre
and/or film industry, will I at least be able to
get an internship somewhere. Where will my
life take me? And most importantly, am I ready
to leave this behind me and move on to new
adventures on the next part of the path I am on.
At times I don’t think I’m ready to gradu
ate and that my life seems to be going nowhere.
I am pretty sure that is not true and is just how
I feel at the moment. I’m not sure where my
life will take me, however, if I keep searching
for opportunities I’ll find something. I remem
ber that one of my classmates in high school,
wrote in my yearbook to “reach for the stars.
You’ll get there someday.” This classmate and
I weren’t really friends but that message had
made me smile.
Recently I had a meeting with one of my
professors about career opportunities. I had no
clue where to begin as I’m not even sure specif
ically what I want to do. My professor told me
to go through any open dgors I see, much like
reaching for the stars. Throughout my years at
SAPC I’ve been given quite a bit of advice from
my friends and also a few select members of the
faculty and staff who I know I can talk to any
time and jvho I consider friends (I hope they
consider me a friend as well). If I was feeling
down for one reason or another and told of why
I was in an off mood, I could always look to
someone for advice and to cheer me up. I can
chat about my hobbies or a favorite movie to
them, which helps since 1 tend to be pretty shy
and quiet. I have also realized that while it
is the small things that may upset me, it is also
the small things in life that can make me smile
Anything from the advice I’ve been given to a
fLinny photo that a friend sent me. While gradu
ation may be coming up quickly, I don’t have to
fully disconnect with those who have helped to
shape my college years and see that I succeed. I
know I can still chat to the friends I have made
here, including the few members of the faculty
and staff who I have connected with. If I ever
need someone to talk to, even if it is through
email, I know there are certain people who I
hope will be there to help me out or just to chat
about anything, for years to come. In a way 1
find it hard to leave somewhere, especially if
it has been like my home, such as SAPC has
for four years St. Andrews is a small college
where one can feel at home and like they can
talk to almost anyone about almost anything.
And with email and websites like Facebook,
the connection to the many friends someone
has made doesn’t have to end when graduation
does The advice doesn’t have to end, either.
There really is a lot you can learn during
your years in college, as I have realized myself
I’m not talking about the stuff you learn in class
but about what you learn outside of class that
will stay with you for years to come. I feel that
an appropriate quote to end this reflection is
one of my favorites: “Be happy for this moment
because this moment is your life” ~Unknown.