For all its beauty and splendor, the world is replete with suffering,
hardship, and misery. Why does evil exist? Is evil necessary? Can we
ever hope to abolish evil? Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and
laypeople have often pondered these questions, but their answers have
generally been unconvincing or unhelpful. They have sometimes tried
vainly to show that all evil is really for the best, and sometimes to
dismiss the problem of evil as too profound to be answered. In The
Evolution of Evil, Timothy Anders offers an original and persuasive
solution to the 'Problem of Evil, ' one that is grounded in science.
According to Anders, the root of all human suffering, and hence of all
evil, is to be found in the historical process by which human life was
created: evolution by natural selection. The compelling simplicity of
this explanation has been overlooked because of several widely-held
misconceptions, notably the view that evolution favors the good and
eliminates the bad, or that evolution favors an inexorable ascent to
'higher, ' more intelligent, and more complex forms. At the heart of
these misconceptions lie prejudices such as anthropocentrism - the view
that humankind is the 'point' of the universe, and that things therefore
tend to be arranged for humanity's benefit; the assumption that nature
is essentially benevolent toward humans; and political utopianism, which
proclaims that it is possible to bring about a perfect or nearly perfect
society. Anders exposes the roots of evil in humankind's biological
background, showing that evolution is not benevolent or progressive, and
that it tends to lead to suffering which can sometimes be mitigated but
never entirely banished. Ourprimate ancestry has left us with many
'scars of evolution, ' inefficient components which lead to pain and
disappointment. Anders shows that humans are especially poorly adapted
to their environment. The fact that they rely heavily on culture and
intelligence is not an unmixed blessing
