Darwin's Dilemma

Radio Lab, a PBS radio program, for its May 2, 2011 show, dealt with the evolutionary problem of goodness. Simply stated, the issue is this: If nature is based in the survival of the fittest, then why are people nice to each other? Why do people risk and even lose their lives on behalf of total strangers?

One story was told of a man, standing with his two young daughters on a subway platform. Near him, another man started seizuring then fell onto the tracks. In a classic story-telling technique, the approaching roar and headlights of a train sharpened the drama. Our hero abandoned his daughters, jumped onto the tracks and tried to raise the man back to the platform. The train roared closer. Realizing he could not make it, he dropped the man between the tracks, covered his body with his own, grabbed the man’s arms and held him as the train shrieked over them. It came to a stop and the man regained consciousness. The rescuer explained what had happened then called out to his daughters to reassure them of his safety.

“What kind of evolutionary advantage is this?" the radio hosts queried. He abandoned his own genetic progeny to rescue a total stranger.

Unlike a number of other interviewees, this man had somewhat of an answer. He had been held up at gunpoint but the gun, held to his head, had misfired. From then on, he felt he was spared for a reason and, after this incident, said that he knew that was the reason. More than that, he had an inner assurance that all would be well just as he took the leap into danger.

The program went on to other such instances in nature. For example, in some parts of Africa, an amoeba exists which, when conditions become difficult, sends out a chemical signal to other amoeba of the same type. They draw together and form a slug-like entity. The top 20% of the mass climb onto each other forming a stalk. These amoebae all die, leaving a hard column onto which the other 80% of the amoebae climb. At the top of the stalk, winds catch them and drift them to a new site with presumably better conditions. Twenty percent die that eighty percent may live. The genetic material of the 20% is lost - which flies in the face of the Darwinian assertion of fang and claw.

I’m not trying to argue evolution versus creation. Neither can be totally proven. But one must admit, along with the conclusion of the show’s hosts, that there is a mystery here.

Bringing he question closer to the purpose of this blog, we might ask, “Why give?” A giver squanders his or her own resources which could go toward carrying on one’s own genetic agenda---again seeming to stare Darwin in the eye.

Even for a Christian, whose mandate is to give, must face the same issues. “Why should I give?”

As Secret Giver and I have talked about the results in our own lives of our various giving experiences, we have reached one conclusion: it makes us feel good. Each of us comes from a different philosophical perspective, but we share a common experience in our giving. Perhaps this is enough; perhaps we will find deeper motivations and grander experiences over time. But for now, we leave the philosophical underpinning aside and bask in the warmth of the sun of a deed enjoyed.