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Abstracts Philosophy, Religion, and Theology

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God, Evolution, and Morality's Foundation

by Adrienne C. Matunas

Institution:	Middlebury
Department:	Student Scholarship
Degree:
Year:	2022
Keywords:	Philosophical psychology (incl. moral psychology and philosophy of action); Religion, society and culture; Ethics; Ethics – Psychological aspects; Religious ethics; Moral development; Religion; Philosophy; Morality; Metaethics; Evolution; Natural Selectio
Posted:	3/25/2025
Record ID:	2296455
Full text PDF:	http://hdl.handle.net/10779/middlebury.21537810.v1

Abstract

Why do human beings have a sense of right and wrong? My thesis research draws upon the work of contemporary ethicists, theologians, and evolutionary biologists in order to compare two answers to this question: 1) a theistic answer, according to which human morality is grounded in God's moral nature and will for humankind; and 2) a naturalistic answer, whereby morality is an evolutionary adaptation which was naturally selected for in humans because the propensity to make moral appraisals helps motivate cooperation and other adaptive prosocial behaviors. The aim of this comparison is to assess whether the two answers are necessarily exclusive. Can a Christian theist maintain that moral truths are grounded in God, while still giving credence to contemporary findings which point to the evolutionary acquisition of a neurobiological platform for moral thinking in humans?