Ameliorating Evolution—Part 2

Many religions have offered messages that are useful for our predicament, such as the counsel to love, be peaceful, and nurture compassion for others. The encouragement to adopt a healthy diet and overcome tribalism (as described in the previous post) is often not in the purview of religion, however, so we must look elsewhere.

Science can help. Certainly, the message that overindulging in some foods has been brought to us by science. Evolutionary psychology—a science—has helped us to understand these behaviors. And even common sense can go a long way to help us change. Aren't many of these behaviors obviously problematic? Does it make sense to binge on junk food? Shouldn't I care about the suffering of people in war-torn regions or the dire poverty that exists most everywhere?

Eastern philosophy can also offer help—such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. I use the world “philosophy” to describe these traditions, because I view them not so much as religions—which consist of belief in a super being and of faith and worship of that being—but as philosophies, which seek an understanding of fundamental reality, so as to guide our behavior appropriately.

An integral part of the Chinese traditions of Confucianism and Taoism is that we can change our behavior by cultivating and understanding our deeper nature. We are not captives of any essential or permanent quality of who we are, but instead we are flexible, malleable beings who can modify our behavior for the better. There is no basic, inherent, specific self that we are destined to be. Life is not about digging down to that core self and then behaving in consonance with its seemingly enduring nature. To do so is to trap ourselves into behaving in a manner that locks us into a distinct, fixed identity. 

Instead, these Chinese philosophies encourage us to view our true self as a range of many possibilities, some of which we can cultivate to become far more than we ever dreamed. This potential to become a fully realized being can definitely free us from the inherited fetters of psychological evolution, such as destructive hedonic behaviors, unnecessary fears, aggression, and insular thinking.

Another particularly relevant tradition for countering our unhelpful—if not dangerous—evolutionary behaviors is Buddhism. A core message of Buddhism is very compatible with the message of evolutionary psychology. This is the central point of a recent book by Robert Wright: Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. Wright is a visiting professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Using the insights of modern psychology and neuroscience, Wright shows that Buddhist meditative practice can transform us into moral and happy beings, who can leave behind our inherited, unhelpful evolutionary behaviors, such as fear, anger, anxiety, distrust, and hatred. Through meditation we can arrive at a far better understanding of reality, as well as our true nature. We can come to see that our responses that are habituated by society and that cause us and those around us pain, can be changed to actions that promote health, happiness, and peace.

As just one example, an intensive Buddhist meditation practice can help us realize that the boundary between our being and others is not a fixed, tribal partition, but a permeable zone that we can learn to extend indefinitely outward, to eventually encompass the entire universe. We can grow and change. The possibilities are unlimited.

What I've tried to describe here is that, while biological evolution has brought about an incredibly complex and wondrous world, our cultural evolution has in some ways gotten too far ahead of us. Our bodies and minds—forged a few million years ago in the cauldron of genetic progress—are struggling to cope with cultural realities that they are not often capable of. Humans are suffering from a widespread case of cognitive dissonance—wherein our thoughts, beliefs, and responses are often inconsistent with the world we live in. We need to get serious about fundamentally changing and bringing our feelings and emotions up to date. This will require much more than simply forging laws or tweaking our behavior.