Evolutionary View
All worldviews must have some view of the origins of the earth and the species that inhabit it. In most atheistic worldviews, including secular humanism, Marxism/Leninism, and cosmic humanism, the explanation of origins lies in evolution.
For the secular humanists and Marxists, evolution is absolutely crucial to their worldview because they have already established their atheism. If there is no God or creator, their only option is to support some form of evolution. Evolution is the “natural” explanation when nothing can be “supernatural.” Secular humanist biology is based on macroevolution, spontaneous generation, and natural selection, strongly depending on Darwinian evolution.
Marxists/Leninists also embrace evolution on both a societal and biological level. Marx believed that the ultimate result of societal evolution would be classless society. In this way, Marx put sociology in scientific terms. In biology, Marxists/Leninists, like secular humanists, believe in macroevolution and spontaneous generation. However, this worldview takes a more dialectical approach to biology than Darwin did. Darwin described a slow and gradual process, but this does not meet the Marxist definition of progress, in biology or society.
Noebel wrote, “According to dialectical materialism, whenever thesis and antithesis clash, the new synthesis created occurs rapidly, in the form of a jump, rather than in the form of a long gradual process...Marxists expect evolution to work according to the dialectic: when thesis (a species) and antithesis (some aspect of the environment) clash, the synthesis (a new species) occurs rapidly” (Noebel, 139). As a result of the dialectical views of Marxism/Leninism, punctuated equilibrium is also an accepted idea. That is, that in the evolutionary process there are long periods of very little change followed by short periods of tremendous change. In this way, Marxists have worked to make evolution agree with their own dialectical ideas.
Cosmic Humanist biology, on the other hand, is different from the others because it is not atheistic, but rather pantheistic. Still, they do believe in evolution. In the view of the Cosmic Humanist, there was some “ultimate cause” and then the evolutionary process began. They also believe that evolution is progress, and man is therefore moving upward. Cosmic Humanists support punctuated equilibrium and they believe that the next “jump” or “shift” is the New Age. Noebel wrote, “Biology provides a generous guarantee for the Cosmic Humanist. Man is guaranteed to make “leaps in being” that will ultimately lead the whole human race—and the universe—to godhood” (Noebel, 149).
Noebel, David A. Understanding the Times. Colorado: Association of Christian Schools International and Summit Ministries, 1995.