One of the arguments made by religious believers against evolution has to do with our will to survive and exist. Among other things, the argument discusses the fact of the existence of people who committed suicide and of others who indicate their desire to die, supposedly in contradiction to the theory of evolution, according to which (so they claim) – we must want to continue to live. Allegedly, this is the basis of evolution. Furthermore (so they claim), the phenomenon of those who despair of their lives is actually more consistent with the religious view: When there is no reason to live (that is, according to them, when there is no religious faith) – then why live?

Let’s start by saying that the will to survive has indeed developed in an evolutionary way. Clearly, animals with suicidal tendencies will survive less and produce fewer offspring. Similarly, the tendency to love and protect your children, the tendency to avoid murdering your own kind, the tendency to avoid eating foods that smell bad, and so on – all have developed by evolution.

However, it is worth mentioning several equally important points that are part of the theory of evolution:

1. The evolutionary development of traits over time is carried out statistically. What happens in the evolutionary process is that traits that contribute to survival will be promoted, and traits that harm survival will be suppressed. This does not mean that the promotion and/or suppression will happen 100% of the time. Just as the theory predicts, there are also many exceptions to the above – just as there are people who tend to murder their own kind, so there are also people with suicidal tendencies, or “albino” monkeys, or two-headed snakes.

2. Evolution does not need any more someone who has already produced enough of his own offspring, whose chances of continuing the lineage are great enough even without him/her. In fact, the “old” generation may even introduce a burden on the survival of the species. Especially in large numbers, it will compete for resources, require special care, and all this without making any significant additional contribution to the survival of subsequent generations.

3. Evolution, perhaps unfortunately, is fundamentally busy with the survival of “genes”, which are nothing more than microscopic units of information made up of amino acids, and do not have any will. The genes that make us survive longer – especially those that produce more offspring – are the genes that will survive longer. This is precisely why viruses and bacteria are so successful, while having no feelings at all. In more complex creatures, with brains, the genes that survived usually produce – depending on the situation – a feeling of desire to survive, as part of the same mechanism.