Among the topics historian Richard Weikart addresses in a recent article is Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne’s contradictory morality:
When it comes to solving the dilemma of morality, Jerry Coyne faces many of the same problems as Russell. Coyne is an emeritus professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago and a prominent atheist. In his 2015 book, Faith Versus Fact, Coyne argues that morality is the product of both evolutionary and cultural processes. He vigorously denies that there is anything fixed or objective about morality. However, despite his moral relativism, later in his book Coyne inexplicably states, “Indeed, secular morality, which is not twisted by adherence to the supposed commands of a god, is superior to most ‘religious’ morality.”Apparently it escapes Coyne’s grasp that for one kind of morality to be superior to another, there has to be some yardstick outside both moral systems…
Coyne embraces the same contradiction when he discusses whether human life has value or purpose. In a YouTube video he states that evolution “says that there is no special purpose for your life, because it is a naturalistic philosophy. We have no more extrinsic purpose than a squirrel or an armadillo.” However, Coyne’s own progressive political and moral views seem to presuppose that human life does have value and purpose.
Richard Weikart, “Whatever Happened to Human Rights?: Morality and C. S. Lewis’s Abolition of Man” at CRI
Being a Darwinist means never having to address inner contradictions. No one who matters asks.