07.22.11
Religion, ethics, and macroevolution
Discussions of religion, science and ethics are all almost completely off the mark. The eonic effect, however, gives us a set of hints, because we can see the effect of ‘macroevolutionary’ processes which are at a much higher level than the purely genetic.
That siad, the emergence of ethical morality, while it is generated by that macro level, is not determined by it. That is why the question is so confusing. It is as if the ‘macro’ level stimulated ‘creative action in a certain dirction’, e.g. the creation of moral systems. That’s why the Old Testament myths of morality, in the full tide of the Axial Age macro interval are nonetheless human creations. In general the evolution of morality is going to prove elusive, and almost beyond solution.
To see the problem, it is worth asking what human moral behavior consists of. It is very hard to answer even that question! Kant spoke of ‘common ordinary morality’ and we observe this all the time, and yet its complexities and inconsistencies make it hard to grasp the essence of evolved morality, and how it works. Needless to say, scientists are simply off the wall here. As with the hopeless confusion over altruism scientists seem to have landed on a different planet, and can’t acknowledge step one: a moral agent. Short of that even the muddle in the Old Testament makes more sense.