André Comte-Sponville, a contemporary French philosopher, explains in his book entitled The Spirit of Atheism, six reasons for not believing in God. One of the reasons presented is human mediocrity. The more I know men, the less I believe in God, says a passage of the book, there is too much mediocrity everywhere, too much littleness, too much void. What a beautiful result for an omnipotent being!

The study of human evolution, from the spiritist principles, refutes such an argument because God was not the creator of human perversity, since God created us simple and ignorant, therefore devoid of virtues and defects.

Nor can human defects be considered as new options for men who chose the path of evil. We do understand them, residues of instinctive reactions, acquired along the long internship of the spiritual principle through the animal kingdom and not yet dissolved by the effort to build the good.

We arrive at such a conclusion by examining the latest research in the area of behaviour of the great apes (orang-utans, gorillas, and chimpanzees), our closest relatives on the evolutionary ladder.

A summary of the studies of primatologists within the behaviour area was presented by Dráuzio Varela, in the series of the newspaper Folha Explica, entitled Monkeys.

The studies astonish us, since they show that the majority of serious human attitudes in ethics and behaviour are commonplace among the apes. 

Orang-utans 

The orang-utans, Asian primates with reddish fur and purple faces. They are extremely intolerant to each other. There is no shadow of mutual association or community defence. When they realize that another orang-utan is nearby, both divert path, one of them retreats or both start a violent confrontation. The fights are ferocious: adult males exhibit a high incidence of scarring on the body, hollow eyes, fingers and broken teeth.

Some Orang-utans are much smaller than the others and are called sub adults, even though they are adults.  Because they are smaller, they live marginalized by both males and females, and the latter are not interested in them. How then do they reproduce, if males double their sizes in the neighbourhood are jealous of them? In silence, they surprise the unprotected female and try by force to have what is not granted to them by good. The females react as they can: screams, bites, punches and kicks. Although the sub adults are weak when compared to the dominant ones, they are still stronger that the females.

Rape is a reproductive strategy. Primatologist John Mitani, quoted by Dráuzio Varela, witnessed 179 matings: 88% of which were rapes. 

Gorillas 

Gorillas are the largest primates, reaching a weight of 200 kilos. They live in Africa. During their movements in search of food areas, paths of Gorilla groups often intersect. These meetings often crumble the myth of the docile gorillas because they almost always end in mortal combat. In these battles, the intruder male often kills the cubs of another. Infanticide pays immediate dividends: females who loose their young tend to leave the male who was unable to protect them, and follow the aggressor. 

Chimpanzees 

They are primates whose intelligence and physical appearance most identify with humans. Chimpanzees gather in packs to deliberately kill their fellows. They are not exclusively vegetarian, but rather have passion for meat and are excellent hunters. Their victims, birds and small monkeys are eaten bones and all, sometimes still alive. They are cannibals and infanticide is amply documented between them. There are many reports of males killing a cub with its teeth.  If they are the beaten party in a fight, they are left with the bad taste which they take out on the weaker; female, adult or cub. For this reason, as soon as conflicts begin, mothers hide themselves with the young in the branches. The dispute over dominance is an obsession in the lives of chimpanzees and brings out the worst in them. For example, when the dominant male dies, and his succession is disputed by two or three males with an ill-defined hierarchy amongst them, it is common to see them climb trees and throw to the ground the most appreciated fruits for the rest of the pack. Once elected to the command post, they will never repeat this demagogic gesture.

As you see, man has an animal side of his personality, despotic, murderous and inherited from his primitive ancestors. 

The Purpose of evolution 

The fundamental difference, however, is that the great apes mentioned do what they do by instinct, without the notion of right and wrong, good and evil. The human creature, heaved to rationality, does what he does knowingly.

The ultimate goal of evolution is not, therefore, in the conquest of reasoning; the emergence of rationality and intelligence should open the door for other achievements to come.

By incorporating intelligence, moral sense and the science of reflection in its individuality, the Spirit is structured to raise itself to greater heights. According to Allan Kardec, the pinnacle of spiritual evolution is the complete sum of virtues and the knowledge of all things, i.e., the full development of intellect and morality (The Spirits’ Book, item 112 and 113).

It is, then, up to the Spirit to go on developing after the acquisition of self-awareness:

a)   the multiple intelligences, today didactically structured by Howard Gardner of Harvard in the following forms: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, physical-kinaesthetic, spatial, naturalistic, interpersonal, interpersonal and existential intelligence;

b)    the values of sentiment, ie human virtues: generosity, humility, tolerance, perseverance, faith, gratitude, good humour, good will, among others;

c)     the sublimation of the sexual instinct, directing the forces of libido towards noble activities in favor of collective aggrandizement;

d)    the mental functions responsible for acquiring, organizing, interpreting and storing information from the outside world, ie cognition, represented by the attention, orientation, sensory perception, memory, and others;

e)     the psychic forces known as paranormal, such as clairvoyance, and clairaudience, precognition, psychokinesis and the retrocognition;

f)     the positive emotions such as hope, serenity, patience, courage, kindness, affection and love. 

The price of evolution 

Until the retracted age of the Paleolithic, André Luiz (a spirit author- through the mediumship of Chico Xavier) informs us that the Divine Intelligences interfered so that the physical vehicle (the physical body) became structured, providing it with precious reserves for the immense future. By now then, mankind is involved in light of the responsibility, the duty to preserve and enhance received heritage is conferred upon the physical vehicle (physical body) and the obligation to meet the perfection of one’s spiritual body (Evolution in Two Worlds, part 1, chap. 20) is handed to man.

The conquest of reasoning and development of intelligence enabled spiritual adulthood to man.  

The Forces of Good who coordinate the evolution of the planet loosened their tutelage, while still involved in the improvement of the evolutionary forms of the planet (Evolution in Two Worlds, Part 2, chapter 12) because the evolutionary work in the physiological improvement of earthly creatures had not yet been finished, continuing, as it is natural, in space and time (Evolution two Worlds, part II, chapter 12). But with the conquest of reasoning, men became responsible for their own actions.. It is up to men to continue by their own effort. The notion of right and wrong inscribed on man’s conscience the law of cause and effect that should guide man’s decisions.

André Luiz wrote:

Let us understand, therefore, that both regeneration as evolution does not occur without price.

Progress can be compared to a mountain that we must overcome, naturally suffering the problems and hardships of the march, while the recovery or atonement can be considered as the same ascent, duly recapitulated through tangles and traps, mirages and brambles that we create ourselves.

If we know, however, how to work hard in honest work, we will not need to suffer and cry during the fair atonement.

And we must not say that all the misfortunes of today’s march (life) are debited against yesterday’s commitments (past lives commitments which were not fulfilled) because, with prudence and imprudence, with laziness and labour, with good and evil, we aggravate or improve our situation, recognizing that every day, in the exercise of our free will, we form new causes, remaking our destinies. (Evolution in Two Worlds, part 1, chapter 19).