Evolutionary ethics is a type of ethical theory according to which morality is rooted in human nature. Based on natural science concepts, evolutionary ethics explains the origin of character as developing a necessary mechanism that arises in evolution. On this basis, the normative principle of morality is formulated: what contributes to life in its most complete expressions is morally positive.
McQuilkin and Copan raise several important issues about evolutionary ethics in Chapter 11. Based on this theory, it can be concluded that if one or another aspect of human behavior follows from evolutionary patterns, this behavior has thus received an evolutionary justification. However, not all parts of emotions and morals have an evolutionary explanation, for example, feelings of hostility towards people from other cultures, that are positive and correct. In addition, the disadvantage of the evolutionary theory is that moral and ethical norms cannot be determined only to a biological degree. This is because cultural and social evolution is immeasurably important in shaping these phenomena.
McQuilkin and Copan do not overstate the case when noting these problems. Not all the emotional and behavioral stereotypes that contributed to the Stone Age hunter genes spread are optimal for a modern civilized person. In particular, according to the theory of evolutionary ethics, man has an innate tendency to divide people into relatives and strangers, and to feel disgust and dislike for the second group. This is not the model of morality that should be imitated today.
In my opinion, evolutionary ethics is not compatible with the belief in God as the basis of ethics. Evolutionary ethics justifies the egoistic motivation of man, the cult of individualism, progressive alienation, cruelty, and aggressiveness in conditions where it is necessary for survival. For a Christian, the manifestations of cruelty cannot be justified because one of the central commandments of Christianity is to respond to evil not with violence, but with good.
Bibliography
Klenk, Michael. “Objectivist Conditions for Defeat and Evolutionary Debunking Arguments.” Ratio 32, no. 4 (2019): 246-259.
Lemos, John. “On the Compatibility of Evolutionary Biology and Theism.” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 12, no. 3 (2020): 24-33.
McQuilkin, Robertson. “The Duty Ethic, Evolutionary Ethics, and God as the Foundation for Morality.” In An Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom, edited by Paul Copan, 179-183. Illinois: IVP Academic, 2014.
Thomas-Clapp, Megan Brooke, and Daniel Brannan. “Evolutionary Ethics and Christian Stewardship.” European Journal of Science and Theology 14, no. 2 (2018): 13-29.