Sunday, January 11, 2009

Why?

Let’s suppose, for a moment, that there is no God. Let’s suppose that the universe came to be on its own and unintentionally so. Let’s suppose accidental abiogenesis in a soup of chemicals. Let’s suppose millions of years of random mutation are selected out in a dog-eat-dog game of survival and produce the kinds of life present on today’s earth. Suppose there exists a man, call him Edward, who is a member of what is undoubtedly the fittest species of them all. He, of course, is not the product of any intentional act of supernatural creation and there exists no specific plan for his life. He is not subject to any absolute law of truth. His survival and the survival of his genes in the gene pool depend solely on his fitness.

Suppose now that Edward, a striking figure himself, sets his sights on Mary. She is a beautiful young woman; fit indeed. Edward begins his advances only to find that Mary is engaged to William. William is small in stature but has a rather large brain. He is industrious, honorable, and brings home a large paycheck. Mary is in love and resolved to marry William.

Edward is undaunted. He reasons with the very brain given to him by the miracle of natural selection that the only solution is to remove William from the picture. Edward sneaks into William’s apartment and bludgeons him over the head a dozen times with a lead pipe. He steals his wallet and leaves behind a handkerchief of the color of the local gang. The police mistakenly arrest a boy who delivers pizzas in the neighborhood. The boy is convicted and Edward gets off scot free.

Mary is heart broken but Edward is there to console her. It is not long before they are on their honeymoon securing Edward’s place in the gene pool. Mary ends up having five kids with Edward before she finds out that he has had countless affairs almost from the start. Nobody is sure exactly how many kids Edward has fathered. Most of them inherit Edward’s cunning and good looks. Therefore they go on to lead similar lives and procure equally prominent positions in the gene pool. By the way, the pizza delivery boy who never had anything to do with the gang and was only trying to work his way through college was knifed in prison and died without ever fathering a child.

Of course this story is not true; but, if it were, then I would like to know something from any atheist, materialist, or humanist.

From the perspective of the natural world and in the light of our supposed evolution, is there any injustice in the above story? If so, then why?

-Mel