No inherent conflict between human rights, evolution

To the Editor:

I was taken aback by a recent letter to the editor that suggested that if evolution were true then there are no human rights.

The idea appears to be that evolution is all about individuals competing for survival in a battle of all against all with only the fittest surviving.

Under those conditions human rights are irrelevant. But that is some sort of libertarian, Ayn Randian, right-wing, psychopathic notion of the human condition. It is not the actual human condition.

That attempt at an argument just shows that the writer understands neither human nature nor the nature of rights, and is unaware of how nuanced evolution as a process can be.

Humans are social beings. They live in societies. Societies stipulate and enforce rights and obligations on its individuals.

Individuals in societies that stipulate and enforce human rights may very well be better off, and thus, more fit, and thus more apt to survive to reproduce than are individuals in societies where human rights are not respected.

Hence, there is no inherent conflict whatsoever between the notions of human rights and evolution.

Bruce Sanders

Greencastle