Chuck Colson Article--Surprising Altruism

Admin Tue 19 Oct 2010, 1:58 pm

Surprising Altruism
Human Love Defies Darwinian Explanation

October 12, 2010 Chuck Colson
Americans were gripped this past weekend with the high drama of watching
men drilling a hole in the ground: a hole that represented the
difference between life and death and a hole that illustrates why,
contrary to what we have been told, we are not just another ape.
On August 5th, a copper and gold mine in Chile caved in. The tragedy
turned into a national crusade when, seventeen days later, it was
confirmed that thirty-three miners had miraculously survived the
cave-in. They were trapped in a rescue chamber 2,300 feet beneath the
surface.
President Sebastian Pinera and his government made the miners' rescue
their top priority. Work began immediately on drilling a 28-inch hole
down to the rescue chamber to extract the survivors. No expense or
effort was spared, and technical help came in from all around the world.
And while families maintained a silent but painful vigil, food, water
and other supplies were lowered down to the survivors through a smaller
hole.
This past weekend, the rescue shaft was completed. Given its width, the
miners will have to be removed one at a time. Since each trip will take
approximately an hour, it will take the better part of two days to
remove all the miners. Who should go first? The weakest?
Well, there was still one more twist in store for Chile and the world. A
surprised Health Minister Jaime Manalich told AP that the miners "were
fighting with [authorities] yesterday because everyone wanted to be at
the end of the line, not the beginning."
A news man from the scene choked up while reporting it. You know who
else should be surprised: Darwinians. They believe the race has evolved
through survival of the fittest. Neo-Darwinism cannot explain altruism
like that displayed by the miners. At best, it can offer a
superficially- plausible explanation for what they call "cooperation. "
But caring about someone outside your immediate kinship group, much less
being willing to sacrifice your well-being for theirs? Never. Richard
Dawkins' "selfish gene" would demand to be the first person out of that
mine. The "selfish gene" would not have even made the miners' rescue a
national priority. It would have settled for superficially- plausible
mourning.
A far more plausible explanation is suggested by the items that the
miners asked be sent down to them while they waited for rescue: a
crucifix and other items associated with their Catholic faith. They told
officials that they wanted to set up a shrine in the rescue chamber.
They signed two flags for Pope Benedict and, to make sure he got at
least one, gave them to different officials.
Now ask yourself, which is a better explanation for their altruism: a
"selfish gene" or belief in a Good Shepherd that gives his life for the
sheep?
Even without an explicit faith connection, we know that this kind of
altruism is uniquely human. Females of other species will fight to the
death to defend their young, but another female's young? Never.
This is so obvious that the insistence that man is just another ape is
nothing but a worldview-a humanist philosophy which is palpably false.
It's a worldview that can never account for what just happened in Chile,
and makes the continued adherence to the Darwinian worldview the biggest
surprise of all.

for further reading
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/15525