230 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



Recognition of this responsibility and its proper exercise are 

 the foundation on which human action must be based. Each 

 individual and society as a whole must search for truth, hon- 

 estly and without bias, always testing thoroughly. Evasion 

 of this responsibility is morally wrong and among the "con- 

 sequences of this morality it follows that blind faith (simple 

 acceptance without review of evidence or rational choice 

 between alternatives) is immoral."* In this category he 

 would place the blind acceptance of theological doctrine or 

 poHtical dogma. Simpson develops the evolutionary ethic, 

 emphasizing always the relationships of responsibility, of 

 knowledge, and of choice, and finds that the good society 

 is one in which individual integration and welfare are not 

 secured at the expense of others, but rather achieved by in- 

 teractions which aid others as well as the self. Applied to the 

 main problems of our societies, both to government and to 

 individual lives, Simpson's ethics provide a general guide for 

 determining right and wrong on a basis of values of suffi- 

 ciently wide latitude to allow for diversity in personality 

 and action and yet not so wide as to overstep ethical bound- 

 aries or impinge unfavorably on other personalities. 



Reiser in his deeply sincere writings on scientific human- 

 ism shows us that: 



Our supreme moral obligation is the "moral obligation to be 

 intelligent"— the obligation to know what is going on in the world 

 and see that social change is headed in the right direction. . . . 

 This means that in the future ethics must be taken out of the field 

 of tradition, authority, or revelation, and put within the field of 

 human intelligence. . . . ethics must be freed from its theological 

 background, so that moral issues are considered without reference 

 to such debatable matters as the immortality of the soul or the 

 existence of god. ... no institution subscribing to such beliefs 

 (e.g., the Church) has the right to prescribe what attitude human 

 beings shall take on moral issues, such as prohibitions, birth control, 

 censorship, and so on.f 



*lbid.,p. 158. 



t O. L. Reiser, Philosophy and the Concepts of Modern Science (New 

 York, The Alacmillan Co., 1935), pp. 305, 309. 



