Empathetic Evolution

    This post has to do with Evolution. I submit at the outset that I do not see Evolution as being at all incompatible with a belief in the bible or Christianity, although it does change some things. I also admit that my learning and conclusions regarding evolution are somewhat undeveloped and will readily concede that my thoughts on this issue may be well-tread ground and are also just musings from an as yet un-researched and not deeply scrutinized position. With all that in mind…    

The evolution of our ability to empathize is possibly the reason for the transition from individual “Survival of the Fittest” to survival as a group. I’ve been learning about evolutionary science lately and it led me to ask why I have my job. Why do I help homeless people to get through life, and hopefully improve their lives, thereby sidestepping the evolutionary mechanism for weeding out those who don’t pass on the most dominant and adaptive characteristics down to the next generation? This seems like a logical question, and one that I’m sure many people have of my profession. That’s why empathy is so strange. At some point in the evolution of our species we gained the capacity to imagine. To feel not only our own pain or passion, but also someone else’s. Why did this happen? Why, from a strictly naturalist viewpoint, would it be beneficial to be able to imagine what another being feels? My suspicion is that there is something beyond strictly a utilitarian purpose in this. Did a supernatural force (aka God) intervene and, perhaps at the moment of consciousness, impute imagination and empathy into us? Is it that our next evolutionary advance is to succeed not just individually or as a certain class or group; but as a whole, as an entire species? Is there a purpose behind the fact that throughout history, along with becoming able to more efficiently destroy each other, we’ve also developed the ability to more bravely and effectively care for one another? Is there a future for us in which we attempt to all cross the finish line together (and I don’t mean by means of apocalypse or jihad)? Will there come a time that those who are best able to propagate the species are those who live in an interplay of feeling, giving and receiving with their fellow humans? Those who are best able to balance the needs of their own lives and the needs of others (and the earth), living in an approximate harmony with all?

    I can think of people I’ve housed who have no life-skills; who drink, smoke (crack), gamble, masturbate and lie excessively; who have burned every bridge they’ve ever walked across; who have experienced devastating traumas, usually at an early age; who, in raising a child would have to overcome the obstacle of never having been raised themselves; whose brains have forever been altered and literally molded by all of the above; is there a future for them in the species? Is there a reason for so much financial, material and emotional investment, or is their predicament of life on the streets, in the alleys, in the dark, simply nature’s way of making sure that their lives are stunted enough to not contribute to the gene pool? I do believe the former. I have to believe that the reason we as a species evolved empathy was to pull each other from the gates of hell and into the kind of life that we all could share in. I have to believe that some measure of parity is possible and even desirable. I have to believe that there is a reason that I feel the way I do about people who are suffering and feel such a strong desire (or at the least a guilt) to do something about it. God has put that in me, and whether or not I’m able to make any discernable difference, I do believe that in the long run this is what’s required of the human race: to grow, to empathize, to evolve.