This natural value is conserved, enriched and distributed over time. Such values in nature, says Rolston, ought to be conserved, enriched and appreciated by humans using their capacities for science, religion and ethics. Beyond the riches of biodiversity, says Rolston, the genetically based creativity on Earth strikingly produces persons in cumulative transmissible cultures. Humans, paradoxically, transcend their genetic sources. This is true especially in their capacities for science, ethics and religion.
Humans critically reflect over who they are, where they are and what they ought to do.
Despite important insights, says Rolston, evolutionary biology is troubled by the appropriate models with which to interpret natural history, and the cultural history that emerges from it. According to him, some biologists mistakenly transfer cultural phenomena back into biological phenomena and misinterpret what is going on. Richard Dawkins does this in his book The Selfish Gene . According to Rolston, this can lead to a mis-valuing of what is legitimately to be appreciated in both nature and culture. With insufficient discrimination of the relevant categories, one fails to understand what is of value in each domain, and how these values are transmitted and shared.