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Darwin's Lost Theory of Love: A Healing Vision for the 21st Century

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The idea that Charles Darwin himself believed that the final climb to human civilization called upon a principle of moral conduct far above the "selfish gene" concept so prevalent in today's popular accounts come as a surprise. But the fact that he argued at length and with passion for the recognition of this principle, along with way anticipating scientific concepts from far beyond his time, and further that this work has been utterly disregarded by the official keepers of evolutionary theory, boggles the mind. Here is a fascinating detective story with an engaging and easy style that makes it a pleasure to read.

I am glad to see the newspapers beginning to discover David Loye's remarkable Darwin's Lost Theory of Love. The prominent feature article in the August 3 issue of Christian Science Monitor is a good sign: Loye's remarkable discovery-that Darwin held human evolution to be driven by love and moral sensitivity, not selfish genes-deserves to be front page news. With Darwin's "lost theory," our species can abandon the 100-year-old distorted mirror we've been looking at, and gain a fresh view on what it means to be human. The Monitor's writer points out what some of the world's leading systems thinkers and biologists are saying: David Loye's book tells an astounding story of great importance.

David Loye's book is indeed revolutionary. It is a carefully documented re-reading of Darwin which shows a completely different side of the father of evolution. The book not only completely revises our view of Darwin, but also shows how a certain image of Darwin and of evolution has emerged over the years, and how this view has had a profound impact on our understanding of life and what is and is not moral behavior. Not bad for one relatively brief volume. It should inspire debate, reflection and possibly a change in the way many of us think about the meaning and direction of evolution.

Fascinating book. The basic gist is great... that Darwin's theory of evolution extends beyond the the simple theory of "survival of the fittest"... that it included a theory that our evolution encompasses a spiritual realm. But the book tries a bit too hard, in my humble opinion, and uses unnecessarily flowery sentence structures to make its point. Along the way, the author gives credit to Darwin for discovering a main tenet of Chaos Theory, which seemed like a real stretch. But overall a nice balance to the common simplistic view of Darwin as a rigid/cold scientist and atheist. Despite some disappointments, I recommend this book.

Darwin a prophet of love as the engine of evolution? David Loye shows it was so. From Darwin's most mature and most neglected writing in The Descent of Man, Loye finds a theory of evolution beyond random mutation or survival of the fittest, which attempts accounting for the rise of family, community, morality and love. Taking the liberty to rephrase Victorian-age male- and Euro-centered language, Loye presents Darwin with a human, compassionate, visionary face. Just the thing to blow open our concepts of where life is going.

I read this a year ago, and have thought about it off and on since. This book made me realize that Darwin was a spiritual man. He saw God working through the process of evolution, and he saw a process of spiritual growth in human history. I never knew this side of Darwin, which has been covered up by simplistic, polarized contoversies since his death.