2i8 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



that all is superstition over there. Science has arisen for no 

 other reason than to make a choice amidst conflicting truths 

 or, if none be found, to continue toward the final discovery 

 of that which is real. Science is disciplined to guard itself 

 against deifying tradition as truth. To insist that beliefs and 

 morality should not be challenged by doubt, is to imprison 

 the race in eternal childhood. Some moralities are better 

 than others in that they bring about a more desirable social 

 and political morale and a better mobilization of physical 

 energies, but all are bound to engender certain fears 

 and anxieties in the minds of man. The dogmatist turns 

 to absolute, supernatural values and an omnipotent father 

 to escape the problem, whereas the answers and safety lie 

 only in the continuous testing against reality, the final, su- 

 preme court of all that is right or wrong. An individual may 

 gain peace of mind by depending on an absolute ethical 

 prop, but in doing so he is running out on the society in 

 which he lives. For basic social problems are worked out not 

 by blind adherence to absolute sanctions but by the coura- 

 geous and intelligent testing of possibilities. Herein lies moral 

 maturity. 



From the origins of the societies of animals and man (as 

 surveyed in Chaps. 7 and 8) it seems clear that, as in all or- 

 ganic evolution, nature has been seeking and striving for 

 configurations on higher cooperative levels. Having no pre- 

 conceived or direct way to reach her goals, nature failed 

 often and on any level. In the study of animal societies the 

 tremendous body of literature of both observation and re- 

 search reveals: 



widespread, fundamental automatic cooperation which has survival 

 value. ... a substratum of social tendencies that extends through- 

 out the entire animal kingdom. From this substratum social life 

 rises by the operation of different mechanisms and with various 

 forms of expression until it reaches its present climax in vertebrates 

 and insects.* 



* W. C. Allee, The Social Life of Animals (New York: W. W. Norton 

 & Co., Inc., 1938), pp. 133, 274. 



