Discussion of

The paper being discussed is concerned (a) with the need to accept evolutionary development as a fundamental organizing principle, and (b) the impact of the `Epic of Evolution' upon the orientation of human existence. Since the dawn of thought, human beings were aware of being embedded in an ultimate mystery they were compelled to understand and to use as moral guidance. Successive explanations were brought forth, changing with advancing enlightenment about nature and displaying an ever grander and more wonderful reality, while pushing the mystery billions of years into the past -- yet never reaching its core.

Explanations varied not only during the course of history, they also differed -- and still differ -- between large regions and within small pockets of our planet, raising contradicting allegiances to a fever pitch, and fuelling violent clashes. Inventions of ever more potent weapons threaten to result in irreversible damage to our species and our biosphere. An ethic of global responsibility has become a matter of life and death.

In large parts of the world, previous cosmological explanations, upon which moral guidelines were based, have lost credibility and become ineffective. G.D.Kaufman asks whether the Epic of Evolution is able to fill the void and serve as new and more solid background for decisions about right and wrong. He admits that no knowledge is final, and that even the concept of evolution, which combines "astrophysical, geological, chemical, biological, historical and other available data... into an all-comprehensive vision of reality," does not solve the ultimate mystery of being. Yet it is sufficiently powerful to make us "aware...that we are rapidly destroying planet Earth's capacity to sustain many forms of life (including our own)." Thus, our creator, nature, speaks to us as powerful as ever.

It is G.D. Kaufman's main tenet, that it is not biological nature alone that created us, but also our own culture. Our brains, our language centers, our ways of thinking, have been shaped and completed to a large part through human interactions during many thousands of years, a process he calls "historicity." During that process, an inherent thirst for meaning in life has been nourished by various creation stories and myths, which grew and evolved together with humanity, providing guidance, and helping to form the very nature of human beings. The latest change, at least in a large part of our world, has been that from myth to science. The scientific Epic of Evolution is one of such magnificence and splendour that previous tales pale in comparison. It is also far more credible. But can it supply moral guidance for everyone?

In contrast to those many scientifically informed minds who look down on individuals who still cling to old myth and stories which appear senseless to them, G.D.Kaufman understands that the craving for meaning is primary, that it is part of human nature, and that it cannot be erased by rationalization or ridicule. Unless the scientific story of creation can be told in a way that makes it acceptable for everyone on earth, its desperately needed function as a global unifying force will be absent.

Therefore, instead of emphasizing the chance element in evolution, as Monod does, G.D. Kaufman places his emphasis on what he calls "trajectories," originally chance-initiated lines of ascent, in which selection pressures produce increasing directionality as the organisms become more complex. Kaufman's understanding of the process does not diverge from that of science:

"Ever more complex species have emerged along some evolutionary lines, and we can discern trajectories of a sort eventuating in these new forms. These trajectories are visible, however, only to the retrospective or backward-looking view that we necessarily take up if we survey the past, and there is no reason (from a biological standpoint, for example) to suppose that the process of evolution has actually been directed, somehow, toward this or that specific goal, or toward any goal whatsoever. The processes of natural selection, it appears, are themselves able to bring about the directional momentums that emerge along the various lines down which life has evolved." (p.15)

One of these lines has led to the creation of human beings, their brains, their minds, their thirst for meaning, and their stories. That all this is part of a single trajectory, provides a scientific understanding of the creation of, and need for, religion. Religion has served throughout millenia as a binding force for groups too large to make family and friendship ties workable. For an even larger group, one that covers the entire planet, the Epic of Evolution has to be told in such a way that it appeals to all people, not only the small group of Western scientists for which the process of evolution has become self-evident. Thus, it is not chance, but creativity, in which we can search for and find meaning, a creativity that originates from a forever mysterious source (in a footnote on p. 21 Kaufman goes so far as to recommend using the name "God" for that source, wherever needed), that brought life, brains, and minds into being -- and that created values through our minds.

We are now free -- all of us -- to accept responsibility for our future. The insight that we must change our values to take the consequences of our actions into account, even if previous dogmas are contradicted, is not anymore a sacrilege, but a divine calling.