Does Evolution Say We are Basically Good or Basically Bad?

by Tom Atlee

There is tension in the world between two partially true beliefs -- both of which claim evidence
from evolution. These two views are:
1. "People are basically good and just need to be nurtured and freed" (see this Nova interview
about bonobos, summarized below)
2. "People are basically bad and need to be controlled to keep from killing each other" (see this
New York Times essay about "Conservatism and Evolution", summarized below).
Given the tremendous evidence on both sides, perhaps it might be useful to consider a third
thesis that embraces both of them:
3. "Human nature is not one thing, neither 'good' nor 'bad' overall. People in general have been
genetically endowed by evolution with a wide variety of tendencies and capacities that respond
to -- but are not necessarily controlled or determined by -- their environment. And so we see all
sorts of individual and cultural behaviors, providing evidence to defend virtually any assertions
about 'human nature.'" (see the Foreign Affairs article "A Natural History of Peace", summarized
below).
We might therefore conclude that our challenge at this stage of evolution is to recognize that
'human nature' is richly diverse and flexible. Perhaps our task is to use our powers of
consciousness, intelligence, and choice to explore the full range of who we are and can be in
various circumstances, aiming both to accept our whole selves and to co-create more lifeserving, meaningful and joyful ways of being together.
Among the things we might take into account is the evocative power of our assumptions about
ourselves, each other, and what's possible. For example, elementary teacher Jane Elliott did a
famous experiment in 1968 in which her young students behaved -- with unexpected intensity -according to her assumptions about how bright and competent they were. One day brown eyed
kids were smart and blue eyed kids stupid, and the next day the opposite. Her results suggest that
in many circumstances our assumptions about each other have a profound effect on which
aspects of us show up in the world. And this is only a small piece of what is going on within us
and among us. We have much more to learn about this and other dynamics if we wish to
consciously and wisely engage our full evolutionary heritage as humans.
We could also develop evolutionary versions of political philosophies like liberalism,
conservatism, anarchism, libertarianism, and communitarianism. Each of these worldviews
invokes key facets of human nature that other philosophies downplay or disparage. Since, from
an evolutionary perspective, all facets of our humanity have a certain functionality under
particular circumstances, evoutionary reframings may allow for integrating these embattled
ideologies into more inclusive, holistic, and benign political worldviews.
We are the ones we've been waiting for -- and we are all we need. We just need to live into being
the people and societies we know we need to be. Evolution has much to teach us about the full
pallette of humanity that's available to us, and the interplay of our strengths and weaknesses in
the world we face -- a world which we and evolution have made.

When the Good Do Bad

Its always interesting to read the quotations of people who knew a mass murderer before he
killed. They usually express complete bafflement that a person who seemed so kind and normal
could do something so horrific.
Friends of Robert Bales, who is accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians, have expressed
similar thoughts. Friends and teachers describe him as caring, gregarious and self-confident
before he in the vague metaphor of common usage apparently snapped. As one
childhood friend told The Times: Thats not our Bobby. Something horrible, horrible had to
happen to him.
Any of us would be shocked if someone we knew and admired killed children. But these days its
especially hard to think through these situations because of the worldview that prevails in our
culture.
According to this view, most people are naturally good, because nature is good. The
monstrosities of the world are caused by the few people (like Hitler or Idi Amin) who are
fundamentally warped and evil.
This worldview gives us an easy conscience, because we dont have to contemplate the evil in
ourselves. But when somebody who seems mostly good does something completely awful, were
rendered mute or confused.
But of course it happens all the time. Thats because even people who contain reservoirs of
compassion and neighborliness also possess a latent potential to commit murder.
David Buss of the University of Texas asked his students if they had ever thought seriously about
killing someone, and if so, to write out their homicidal fantasies in an essay. He was astonished
to find that 91 percent of the men and 84 percent of the women had detailed, vivid homicidal
fantasies. He was even more astonished to learn how many steps some of his students had taken
toward carrying them out.

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can
almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. Elie Wiesel
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