An earthly explanation for our better qualities
Humans’ virtues require no recourse to anything outside this world, says Peter Clemerson.
‘‘Our personalities are influenced by our genes, the ultimate product of selection pressures.’’
At this time of the year, we celebrate people’s kindness. Doing so more than once a year might be a good idea. But to credit this aspect of our nature to a supernatural entity is unnecessary.
In Every little kindness is God lighting our way (Dec 21), James Lyons, a Roman Catholic priest, expressed the belief that human kindness can be credited to the Christian god’s ‘‘working through us to heal, unite, bless and light our way’’.
But our affection, altruism, empathy, tenderness and other human virtues require no recourse to anything outside this world.
Anyone reading about science’s discoveries as reported in the press must be aware of humanity’s gradual emergence over millions of years.
Where once, probably about six million years ago, our ancestors were apelike, with a brain only one-third the size of ours, now we know from studies of fossils and genetics and the discovery of elaborate stone tools and cave drawings, that they evolved slowly, eventually becoming us.
The Pope now accepts this evolution as a fact.
He says the relevant sciences are true and recommends that Christians not think of their god as having a ‘‘magic wand’’.
Life was hard for our ancestors. Among these emerging people, those who co-operated with each other overcame life’s difficulties better than those who did not. They hunted in teams, they shared food and information about the whereabouts of food.
They taught each other skills and aided those who were sick or in danger, particularly the relatives with whom they lived.
The most co-operative and most empathetic benefited the most.
Those who were less co-operative and responsive received less help and so did their relatives.
The more co-operative survived with their children who reproduced more successfully.
In Darwinian terms, there was a selection pressure to co-operate, to be kind, to be responsive to the needs of others as well as to our own.
Today we know that these aspects of our character have a genetic underpinning.
Our personalities are influenced by our genes, the ultimate product of selection pressures.
This Darwinian selection pressure has worked for many thousands of generations amplifying the genes for the nicer aspects of human nature.
When we watch David Attenborough’s portraits of the struggle for existence, it is easy to characterise Darwin’s process of natural selection as ‘‘red in tooth and claw’’. But in appropriate circumstances, the right environmental niche, natural selection also promotes the development of virtues, both ours and those of other species which co-operate and nurture each other.
Given this very earthly explanation for the better side of our natures, how should we behave?
Here Humanists and god-believing people like Fr James Lyons can espouse a shared ambition: we can develop a culture of mutual support and assistance.
However, unlike Fr Lyon, Humanists do not believe that there is any merit in resorting to imaginary friends or angels or sanctified humans for help. We merely have to examine ourselves, identify those aspects of human character which we admire and promote them.
We know how they evolved in nature and we can decide to give them a cultural boost.
In the 2002 Amsterdam Declaration, Humanists affirm ‘‘the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual and the right of every human being to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others.
Humanists believe that morality is an intrinsic part of human nature based on understanding and a concern for others, needing no external sanction . . . Humanists believe that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human thought and action . . . and advocate the application of the methods of science and free inquiry to the problems of human welfare.’’
This is how Humanists approach the world and its many problems. We invite you to join us.
Peter Clemerson is a council member of the Humanist Society of New Zealand.