...materialistic evolution cannot explain many human characteristics...
Oh let me give it a try...
free will
You mean the ability to make decisions based on available data? In other words.. Choose one's course of action?
Well obviously a creature that could adapt mentally as well as physically to a changing environment would have an advantage over those that couldn't.
Same with self awareness. The better an understanding a creature had of it's surroundings and how it fit into those surroundings, the better it could adapt.
sense of beauty
Well physical beauty is based on symmetry. And symmetry is a good outward indicator of genetic health.
So naturally when choosing a mate, one would want to be attracted to the guy with the best genetic health.
musical abilities;
language abilities;
sense of morality;
Since we have evolved as social creatures, these all serve to cement the social bonds and make out social interactions more efficient. A species that can communicate complex ideas to each other can better cooperate.
meanwhile a shared morality can keep a group together.
aversion of bad smells;
Besides the number of smell receptors, another key difference between the noses of say dogs and humans is that humans have pain receptors linked to those smell receptors. Our ancestors were apparently scavengers but with a low tolerance for rotting meat. So we developed noses to determine which food was safe or unsafe to eat.
]aversion of dirtiness;
.....
preference for cooked food;
These are completely cultural affectations. People in the middle ages never bathed, believing it would give them the plague. And as some one else pointed out..sushi.
Of course, even here we can see evolution at work since the principles of physical evolution work on cultures as well. If a culture's mores help it survive (by say, avoiding disease by cooking food and staying clean) then that culture will more likely thrive.
All these are found lacking in animals;
No. Other animals don't have these things as highly developed as we do. But orangtangs have been shown to have a limited self awareness. Dolphins and wolves have a language of sorts. Birds sing and are attracted to things they consider beautiful. and higher primates line baboons and chimps have a social structure wherein actions can be considered acceptable or not.. in other words.. moral.
Gee, that wasn't very hard at all.
