The design of evil

Last time I wrote about how it is incorrect to think of evolution as wasteful. Similar is the view that the evolutionary mechanism is somehow a source of evil. But it seems to me that viewing life as the product of design would be a better reason to see nature as a source of evil.

Nature is cruel, regardless of your beliefs on origins. That is a simple observation. Animals are killing each other every second. Parasites eat their hosts from the inside out. Plants and fungi poison animals that eat them. Fewer than 10% of animals born will ever reproduce, and in many groups it is dramatically less than that. Even with humans it is only recently that a newborn had a greater than 50% chance of surviving to have children. I could go on, but the point is undeniable that nature is full of death and pain and cruelty, no matter how it got here.

Why should that observation lead to evil in humans? I don't see why it would if that cruelty is simply the result of natural processes. But if the cruelty is designed, if it is there on purpose and for a reason, I could see it being used as a basis for cruelty. It is only if you see design behind the cruelty that you can justify more cruelty as part of a greater purpose. Evolution does not see purpose, or lack of purpose, in the cruelty. It just is, and cannot be used to justify our behavior.

The same is true with the biology of behavior. It doesn't matter what you believe about our origins, it can't be denied that our biology and genes affect our urges and desires. We all have sexual desires and obviously those are part of our biology. Genes and hormones produce them, we don't just decide to have desire. Anger has a biological underpinning. There is evidence for a genetic influence on violence and addictive behavior. Even if you don't believe evolution produced those genes, you cannot deny that the genes and hormones exist or pretend that our biology has no affect on our behavior.

Again, it is the design proponent for whom this is a problem. If evolution produced these, it says nothing about whether they are good or bad or should or should not be followed. But if it was designed, then you must find the purpose or reason for these behaviors.

Everyone agrees evil is there, the only question is whether that evil was designed or not. I have to give Micheal Behe credit for being consistent. In his latest book, The Edge of Evolution, he takes his design views to their logical conclusion and says that Malaria has been designed to kill people.

Evolution doesn't make us evil. It isn't a mechanism that tells us how to behave. We are animals, whether we like it or not. Being an animal doesn't mean we must behave as animals. I think the reason evolution deniers think that way is because they habitually see purpose behind everything. They cannot understand a process that just is. When they contemplate evolution, they are actually seeing it as design, and that is why they see it as evil.