The Fruits of Contradiction: Evolution,Cooperation and Ethics in an Inter-Religious Context

Abstract

While recent developments in evolutionary theory, particularly game-theoretical models of group selection, can appear to provide a potential evolutionary grounding for human altruism, significant ethical problems remain embedded in such portrayals of human interaction. Specifically, such models end up treating the value of the individual as subservient to group survival, rather than viewing each unique individual as an ‘end in herself’. As such, a contradiction remains between the picture of human relationships that arises from evolutionary game-theoretical accounts and the picture that arises from many ethical and religious accounts, particularly those linked to the biblical conception of the image of God. However, I argue that such contradictions between scientific and ethical-religious pictures need not lead to despair; rather, by drawing a parallel to dialogues between individuals holding ‘contradictory’ theological claims, we can discern ways in which such contradiction can generate a fruitful tension that can lead to deeper understanding both of one’s own tradition and that of the other person. Accordingly, as with inter-faith dialogue, interactions between evolutionary theorists and religious ethicists can also give rise to greater self-understanding and expanded intellectual horizons, not in spite of but precisely by virtue of their ‘incompatible’ pictures of the human being.