ON "HUXLEYS EVOLUTION AND ETHICS IN SOCIOBIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE" BY GEORGE C. WILLIAMS

Abstract. I concur with Williams that improving human ethics requires full consideration of the biogenetic facts; but I argue that the understanding of biogenetic facts, and of ethics also, can be improved by a fuller view of nature's mechanism for selecting what is fit, a view recently generated by physical scientists. For me ethics necessarily must fit the evolved genotype, but ethics does not emerge until the rise of cultural evolution, where nature selects a culturetype symbiotic with the genotype. I outline my integrated dynamics of the relation of culturetypes to genotypes and to the laws governing physical systems. The biologist's finding that a living organism is of transient significance compared with its lines of heritage and their consequences, I argue, is constructively important for ethical and theological understanding.     

THE HEART OF MY CONCERN

Abstract. This brief piece summarizes the author's lifelong personal credo, particularly his attempt to translate traditional religious wisdom into modern scientific concepts. Contemporary science reveals to us the vast system of natural processes that has brought the universe, our planet, and our species into existence. This natural system is in fact a "more-than-human 'Lord of History,'" corresponding to traditional ideas of God. This Lord of History not only has created us but also sustains us—not just externally but also our interior psychic and spiritual nature. We are challenged to discern the requirements that this system of natural processes places upon us; if we conform to these requirements, we shall be blessed, and we will be enabled as co-creators of our future evolution.     

THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDY INRELIGION AND SCIENCE, AND ZYGON: JOURNAL OFRELIGION AND SCIENCE-A TWENTY-YEAR VIEW

Abstract. This essay gives a brief history and presents an analysisof the aims and accomplishments of the two institutions as seen bythe author. The analysis seeks to describe and justify some of theirbasic presuppositions. Primary has been their belief that scientifi-cally informed understandings of religion do enrich our apprecia-tion of and faith in it. For instance, religion's recently discoveredroles in the evolution and development of sociocultural systemsand personalities provide new credibility and importance for reli-gious heritage. Recent translations between contemporary scien-tific and ancient religious concepts give new hope for religiousreform, revitalization, and effectiveness for human salvation in anage of science.     

PLEASURE AND REASON AS ADAPTATIONS TO NATURE'S REQUIREMENTS

The values which guide mental and physical behavior seem to be derived from evolutionary facts. In our brains, selection of genes has tied the experience of pleasure to motivating what nature requires us to do for the good of ourselves, our kinsmen, and our ecosystem. When our brains evolved to house also a cultural heritage (including religion, the motivation of sociocultural goals, and rational discourse), hellish tensions could arise to split brain function (minds) and societies. Salvation could and did come from natural selection's replacement of discordant elements in our heritages by better coadapted ones. In this replacement, human rational decisions participated. Selection also continued to adapt these symbiotic heritages to their common environment.