NOTHING TO DO WITH EVOLUTION

Richard Koenigsberg

There are numerous extraordinary videos on the Internet showing animal behavior in a natural environment. One genre repeats frequently: a lion chases a zebra, attacks it viciously by jumping on top of the animal, and eventually kills the zebra through a bite to the neck.

This behavior is accurately described as “violence;” almost an operational definition of violence: vicious, furious and horrific to our human way of thinking. But the lion is not angry at the zebra, but simply is doing his or her thing: surviving by killing an animal to obtain nourishment. This simple example is a form of behavior based on natural selection has survival value.

The lion doesn’t hate or dislike the zebra or consider the zebra an enemy (as far as we know).

The same word "violence" applies and is used to describe the actions of terrorists who viciously murder an "infidel"--by igniting a bomb and blowing human beings up in a restaurant; by flying an airplane into the world trade center resulting in the deaths of thousands of people, etc.

The two forms of behavior, accurately characterized by the word "violence"--have nothing to do with one another. The Lion’s violence is generated by biology (his genetic make-up) and is adaptive--has survival value.

The terrorist’s violence is generated by different motives. He seeks to kill human beings based on his ideology (an abstract idea or belief system). Nothing to do with evolution, survival, or biological adaptation.

The terrorist's violence (his desire to kill) grows out his belief that the ideology of the infidel contradicts or negates his own belief system. "Death to the non-believer" as the phrase has it.

The "infidel" is a human being whose beliefs negate the beliefs of the Islamic suicide bomber; negates the truth or reality of Allah. The suicide bomber kills an idea or entity whose beliefs are inconsistent with his belief that Allah, a sacred object, confers immortality or eternal life upon himself.

Richard Koenigsberg