Page 40 - Devotion Among Animals Revealing the Work of God

DEVOTION AMONG ANIMALS

Here one of the key questions has to do with altruism: How is
it that natural selection can favor patterns of behavior that ap-
20
parently do not favor the survival of the individual?

The "Instinct" for Continuing the Species

As we saw in the preceding pages, evolutionists cannot explain
the important subject of animals' devotional behavior... The many ex-
amples observed in nature disprove the central propositions of the the-
ory of evolution. The late Stephen Jay Gould, a renowned evolutionist,
stated that acts of devotion in nature pose "the vexatious problem of al-
21
truism." Gordon R. Taylor, giving voice to the evolutionists' woes,
says that living beings' devotional behavior "has long presented a chal-
22
lenge for Darwinism." Wholly "spiritual" qualities like care and com-
passion deal a clear sharp blow to the materialist worldview that views
nature as the sum total of random interactions of matter.
Some evolutionists, refusing to admit defeat, came up with a
proposition they termed "selfish gene theory." Richard Dawkins, one of
the most ardent adherents and the pioneer of this position, claims that
what appears to be selfless devotion is really driven by egotism.
According to his view, animals displaying devotional behavior are
doing so not because they want to help others of their species, but are
acting on behalf of their own genes. To put this idea in context, any an-
imal mother who sacrifices her life for her young is thereby helping
pass along her genes. If her offspring survive, they will be more likely
to perpetuate her genetic characteristics to the next generation.
According to this rationale, all creatures—humans included—are sim-
ply "gene machines." Every living organism's foremost responsibility is
to pass its genes along for future generations.
Evolutionists claim that living things behave according to their
programming, to "want" to continue the species by transmitting their
genes along to future generations. The following quote, from the evo-
lutionary book Essentials of Biology, is a fine example of the explana-

38