A Brief Comment on Altruism and Darwinism: Presuppositions

Altruism in this post is defined as: "self-sacrificial behavior in the service of others."

[From National Public Radio's RadioLab, Season 9, Episode 1]:

"[Altruism] was a great mystery to Darwin, and Darwin said this is, in fact, the greatest mystery and the greatest riddle, and if I can't answer it, then my theory isn't worth anything."

"And for a hundred years when people talked about evolution, this thing-- altruism-- was the elephant in the room."

"So we were curious about this. How might you take this 'elephant'-- this 'niceness' thing that seems to be everywhere-- and shove it back into the mean old theory of evolution; there's gotta be a way."

Most interesting in the quote above is the final assertion: "There's gotta be a way."

After spending the preceding few minutes describing how altruism seems to contradict Darwinian "survival of the fittest," and before examining any evidence that might be taken as indicating that altruism fits in with the Darwinian model, the scientists of NPR's RadioLab assert that "there's gotta be a way" to make altruism fit in with Darwinism.

Why?

Because adherence to naturalistic evolution according to a Darwinistic model is absolutely taken for granted. From the worldview of those involved in producing RadioLab-- and from the standpoint of many scientists and media personalities today-- there is no possibility that any evidence could overturn naturalistic evolution. Even when evidence seems to point in another direction, before the conversation begins, naturalistic evolution according to a Darwinian model is presupposed. The conclusions are made before the evidence is gathered: THIS IS NOT SCIENCE.