Darwin’s Influence on the Mental Health and Addiction Recovery industries
Darwinism is more than a theory of evolutionary biology. It is integral to the secular worldview of the Western intellectual elite that wants to marginalize religious faith as having no claim on knowledge.
The natural sciences and humanities (mental health, addiction recovery, etc.) are dominated by this naturalistic and secular worldview, and so they either ignore Christian claims or attack them forthrightly (Groothuis, 277).
What people may not realize is that Darwinism gives strength to atheism because God is exorcised from biology (Ibid., 276). What is even more concerning is that the mental health industries, humanities, philosophy, academia, and sciences have all been fundamentally influenced by Darwinism, and these are the industries reaching and teaching the most vulnerable: easily influenced students and those coming for services.
Even though there are gaping holes in the theory of evolution, the prevailing bias is evident in this pronouncement by Richard Lewontin, an eminent biologist and defender of Darwinism:
“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism...Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door (Ibid, 279).”
In this quote, we see the true motive: to remove God.
Thomas Nagel admitted to why so many, himself included, in academia and science are dedicated to naturalism and scientism when he coined the term of the real issue, “a cosmic authority problem (Nagel, 1997).”
Nagel stated in the Oxford Press,
“My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about life, including everything about the human mind. Darwin enabled modern secular culture to heave a great collective sigh of relief by apparently providing a way to eliminate purpose, meaning, and desiring as fundamental features of the world. Instead, they become epiphenomena, generated incidentally by a process that can be entirely explained by the operation of the nonteleological laws of physics on the material of which we and our environments are all composed. There might still be thought to be a religious threat in the existence of the laws of physics themselves, and indeed the existence of anything at all, but it seems to be less alarming to most atheists (Ibid, 130).” Nagel later recanted his own atheism due to the absurdity of evolution and the clear evidence of intelligent design.
Materialism and naturalism are closely related, with the idea that matter is the fundamental substance in the universe and that everything, including mental states and consciousness, is ultimately composed of or dependent on matter.
The reason Darwinianism is so popular is not because it is true and without error…but because it pushes God out of creation and biology. George Mitvart, a professor of Biology, claimed that Darwin presupposed naturalism to explain away any religious realities (Wiker, pp.124-30).
To someone who adheres to evolution, the natural world is all that can be studied and must, by itself, provide all the answers to scientific questions. This is the prevailing mindset… that the only source of knowledge is in the material world and in what we can see. The immaterial world should not even be considered.
In J.P. Moreland’s Intelligent Design Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology on Consciousness: Turning Water into Wine, he states,
“According to the Naturalistic evolutionary account of all things, from single-cell organisms, to human beings, to the physical universe, evolved from natural processes. What we see in nature [or the brain] can be explained adequately and fully without appealing to anything nonphysical or supernatural (Moreland & Grace, 2002).”
Therefore, disputing Darwinism is central to dislodging this secularist mindset that affects so much of elite intellectual life. Darwinism is the basis for most academia’s understanding of nature, life, meaning, and existence. This meta-narrative has infiltrated most realms of academia, psychology, and science, but it is far more than a biological theory (Groothuis, 2012).
How has Darwinianism impacted the helping industries?
Darwinism is a worldview. A worldview is what answers basic questions about reality.
James Sire, author of The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, asserts there are eight basic questions a worldview answers: (1) What is prime reality- the reality of real? (2) What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us? (3) What is a human being? (4) What happens to a person at death? (5) Why is it possible to know anything at all? (6) How do we know what is right and wrong? (7) What is the meaning of human history? (8) What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview (Sire, 22-23)?
The Christian response to Sire’s worldview questions will differ significantly from the secular answers. Moreover, how a therapist, pastor, treatment center, or anyone, for that matter, answers these questions will significantly impact their treatment outcomes and definitions of recovery. Since these narratives within the mainstream secular addiction recovery industry are antithetical to a Biblical worldview, the Church needs to think more critically about the philosophical and theological implications before accepting these ideological frameworks as true, sound, and correct.
The worldviews held by the world are defined in scripture as “the ways of this world.”
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV).”
Sire defines ‘worldview’ this way,
“A worldview, or vision of life, is a framework or set of fundamental beliefs through which we view the world and our calling and future in it. It is often not fully articulated; it may be so internalized that it goes largely unquestioned (Sire, p. 18).”
Everyone has a worldview. The counselors, the treatment centers, the person addicted, the homeless person, the teacher, the student, and the list goes on…
The narratives, assumptions, and ideologies in the mental health and addiction recovery industries are informed by a conglomerate of worldviews. Worldviews that are not aligned with what the Word of God teaches. According to James Sire,
“Whenever any of us thinks about anything, from a casual thought to a profound question, we are operating within such a framework. In fact, it is only the assumption of a worldview, however basic or simple, that allows us to think at all (Ibid, 19).”
Darwin’s theory of evolution has significantly influenced the BDMA (Brain Disease Model of Addiction) conversation by reducing the governance of human behavior to the brain’s neurobiology. This model begs the question, what does it mean to be human? Are we created in the image of God, or are we just a highly developed ape? What is the problem with man? Is it sin or biology? Does evil truly exist, and are we morally responsible for it? Or are we all just cosmic accidents, and moral laws do not even exist?
As mentioned above, the answers to these questions will greatly impact treatment modalities and desired outcomes. It will also determine what is needed for healing and what constitutes true recovery.
Is recovery spiritual liberation and reconciliation with God, our Creator? Or is recovery a ‘better’ life and more stability? The atheist and the Christian would answer that question very differently.
Currently, our secular recovery centers and mental health workers are operating (often unknowingly) from a position that has been taught by theories steeped in evolutionary psychology, which, fundamentally, assumes atheism.
This is why you have seen a rise in calling what the bible would call ‘sin’ a ‘disease’ in the secular industry. I am not suggesting that mental illness isn’t real, or that it is never caused by biological factors, but there is a reason our secular Western society prescribes 90% of the world’s prescriptions. We do not consider mental suffering to ever be a matter of immaterial matters, such as unbelief, sin, or demonic influence, but rather view biblical teaching as superstitious and lacking in sophistication.
I am also not suggesting that all mental anguish is due to those things, but sometimes… it is. If we say we believe the Bible, then we also must agree that much of the evil in this world has been reduced to ‘mental illness’ (biology) rather than acknowledging the spiritual forces at work in this world.
Finally, which is the better news between Darwinism and Christianity? That addiction and all mental anguish are due to biology because we are a highly developed machine, based on a cosmic accident, in which we are not morally responsible for our decisions? Or are we souls, which enliven the body, and moral agents, in which we will give an account? Does a personal God exist, or are we orphans in this cold universe? Are we biologically bound to addiction and our identity tied to being an ‘addict’, or can we be set free and given a new identity in Christ?
For more on this, please read the article, ‘What is Addiction? A biblical response.’