There are many religious objections to the fact that human beings have evolved from primitive apes. For example, many, if not most, religionists believe that human beings were created in their present form. However, even if one rejects the fossil evidence, the DNA evidence clearly demonstrates that human beings share a common ancestor with chimpanzees. In the past, it was reported that humans share 99.6% of our genes with chimpanzees. Recently, estimates have been lowered to 98.5%, 97.5% and 95%. However, the fact remains that humans and chimpanzees are very close cousins. Indeed, humans and chimpanzees even share “pseudo-genes,” or genes that served functions in the distant past.

Many theists believe in theistic, or God-directed, evolution. However, there are several problems with this idea. First, if God directs evolution, does he also direct the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria? If so, why is he trying to kill us? If not, why should we believe he is directing the evolution of humans and other life forms?

Second, as the scientist Jerry Coyne has noted, evolution is a cruel, painful and wasteful process. The idea of theistic evolution collides with the notion that God is perfectly intelligent, perfectly wise, perfectly good, etc. How could such a perfect God be responsible for a process that is cruel, painful and wasteful?

Third, there is a naming problem. After all, we are talking about evolution by natural selection. If God directs the process, it is not evolution by natural selection. Rather, it could be called evolution by supernatural selection. If theists are serious about theistic evolution, they should be up front about what they are talking about and change the name. However, this is unlikely to happen, because it would demand a paradigm shift too radical for most good scientists to embrace.

As Richard Dawkins has pointed out, most theists just do not have enough scientific imagination to see how life could have arisen without divine intervention. Naturalists, on the other hand, see how matter acting in accordance with the laws of biochemistry could bring forth life.

It is a mistake to believe that the only opponents of evolution and the furthering of Darwin’s legacy are theists. For example, there is a group known as the Black Atheists of Atlanta. One of the group’s members, “Ankh,” once asked, “Darwin who?” Such extreme Afrocentrists find it difficult to accept any idea that has gained wide acceptance from White scholars (another example of the genetic fallacy.) Though they see the absurdity in deifying human beings, they believe it is a virtue to deify African culture, and to denigrate European culture.

However, there are many Black scholars that have embraced evolution. For example, Melvin B. Tolson was a major teacher and columnist. He coached the best debate team in the U.S., from the historically Black college, Wiley, in Marshall, Texas. The movie, The Great Debaters, featured Academy Award winning actor Denzel Washington in the role of Tolson.

Clarence Darrow was one of the most brilliant and able defenders of evolution during the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. After Darrow’s death in1938, Tolson wrote moving tributes to him, and chastised the Black press for not covering news of his death.

W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the 20th Century’s most important scholars, was also a friend of Darrow’s. Indeed, Du Bois once tried to arrange a debate with Darrow and a Black Christian minister. The NAACP frowned upon the debate. However, Du Bois’s knowledge of evolution helped to inform his secular worldview.

Hubert Henry Harrison was another intellectual giant. He was one of the leading Black activists of his day. He could quote long passages from Darwin, Huxley and other defenders of evolution.

According to his greatest biographer, Jeffrey B. Perry in his magnificent book, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918:

Related to Harrison’s interest in freethought, his agnosticism, and his turn to science to address social problems was his interest in evolutionary theory. This interest…was expressed more directly in a revealing letter published in the May 29, 1909, New York Times….He…discussed how [major scientific] work was debated until Charles Darwin, after twenty-two years of research, “launched his book…and the whole fabric of scientific mythology based upon Genesis and a special creation collapsed at once.” (pp. 118-119)

This kind of forthrightness often landed Harrison in trouble. However, he fiercely, courageously and consistently defended evolutionary theory and the importance of good science education.

Claude McKay was one of the most important poets during the early 20th Century arts and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Claude was born and raised in Jamaica. He had an older brother named U. Theo. His older brother was well-read in freethought literature, and he was a member of the Rationalist Press Association of Britain. The elder brother deeply influenced Claude, who would go on to embrace evolution and establish a young agnostics group.

Claude’s most famous poem was If We Must Die, in which he called for African Americans to defend themselves against lynching and other violent attacks from racist Whites. Winston Churchill would read the poem aloud to rally his people when they were at war against the Nazis.

[This article is based on a talk I gave to the Society of Ontario Freethinkers in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, on February 11, 2012. The topic was “Evolving Beyond God: Why Africa Matters.”]