ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Darwinism's coherence and cogency, introduces its implications for the Teleological Argument, and illustrates and appraises the problem of natural evil which contributed to Darwin's own loss of belief in God. It also considers its possible implications in the area of sociobiology. The chapter introduces some interpretations of disvalues in nature from followers of Darwin. Stephen Jay Gould depicts some of the glosses of cosmic optimists on moral lessons to be learned either from the mother wasp's considerateness for her young or the self-discipline of the grubs, to which he appends a fitting parody from Mark Twain. Some of Darwin's followers have concluded that natural creatures, and even nature itself, should be declared immoral, and some have deplored the restraint of Darwin's early supporter Thomas Henry Huxley, when he wrote: 'Thus, brought before the tribunal of ethics, the cosmos might well seem to stand condemned.
