The Mind Is The Effect, Not The

Whereas Religions May Serve A Benign Purpose By Letting Many People Feel Comfortable With The Level Of Morality They Themselves Can Attain, No Religion Holds Its Member To The High Standards Of Moral Responsibility That The Secular World Of Science And Medicine Does!

The Traditional View Of Purpose Says It Comes From On High, From God, From The Creator. Darwin's Idea Of Natural Selection Makes People Uncomfortable Because It Reverses The Direction Of Tradition. Whereas People Used To Think Of Meaning Coming From On High And Being Ordained From The Top Down, Now We Have Darwin Saying, "no, All Of This Design Can Happen, All Of This Purpose Can Emerge From The Bottom Up Without Any Direction At All."

Churches Have Given Us Great Treasures Such As Music And Architecture. Whether That Pays For The Harm They Have Done Is Another Matter.

Wherever There Is A Design That Is Highly Successful In A Broad Range Of Similar Environments, It Is Apt To Emerge Again And Again, Independently - The Phenomenon Known In Biology As Convergent Evolution. I Call These Designs 'good Tricks.'

I Think That What One Can See From A Darwinian Account Is How The Addition Of Culture In Our Species Turns Us Into A Very Special Sort Of Animal, An Animal That Can Be A Moral Agent In A Way That No Other Animal Can Be.