E v o l u t i o n.
Humanity, the offspring of rodents that we are. Don't like that analogy? Imagine how little our progeny millions of years from now should our and their children survive and reproduce that long like being compared to us. Those who think what we now call humans is the end result of evolution, that kind of thinking secretly or not-so-secretly wishes to stop it now or try to freeze it here. All species, like it or not, are evolving into new ones. What we are becoming is what we bring out in ourselves in how we choose to be and what we choose to become every moment hence. Choose wrong and the exit door for humanity is always only one step away. Ways forward, what we or they will become, will be horrific and will be more just, and either path can always be taken. What is within us, what it is our capacity to become defines and sometimes makes the choices for us, and that is always both evil and good. The only thing which can shift is where the middle, the median lies, and in which direction it is currently moving towards. It is never thought to be pushed in the wrong direction by those doing the pushing. The only way to compass which way is more just is to see it, to define it, by the most possible persons living perspectives at once. Only through ALL others eyes can we get any perspective on the value or worth of what we make of ourselves. |
This page I thought I would add to group together some things I wrote on
the topic of evolution. I wanted to find a place to put the above here
after I wrote it because of something I read shortly thereafter in the
Wall Street Journal which drove home the fact that people still live in
denial about our origins. The article referred to how modern humanity differed
from other humans living at the time (Neanderthal, etc.) and "FROM
OUR EXTINCT ANCSESTORS". I am quite
sure if we are alive, though our ancestors can be dead, they most certainly
are cannot be extinct. While granted a reporter for the Wall Street Journal
is neither a scientist nor a biologist, it is indicative of how despite
even when talking about and supposedly acknowledging evolution, many of
us, even some scientists, still like to think of species just appearing,
poof, out of nowhere intact like Adam and Eve, and leave all those dirty
forbearers who lived in the mud, and were quite indifferent than any animals
we see today, as far out of mind as possible. We are special, made in God's
own image, and anything close to us, say a different form of human showing
lighting can strike twice or that we are not nearly so unique as we like
to think, was always destined only for the wastebasket, a "What
was I thinking, thank Me I got it right this time, I can stop now,"attitude
for God. Surely nothing around us could evolve into what we are if we stumble.
That would be sacrilege! I don't mean to seem to pick on peoples' religious
ideals. If you have Creationist views or are a member of a similar such
religion and dismiss the idea of evolution based on your religious convictions,
such attitudes are fine with me. What I cannot stand is people, or pseudo-scientists,
who try to find a middle ground, a Creationist's "scientific" version of
evolution or other scientists without possibly even realizing their biases,
who like to think of species as just appearing relatively overnight and
having little to no relation to what they grew out of or were growing into
for millions of years prior to that point as inferior, insignficant, and
irrelvant. Though it does not now seem possible, it would be nice to think
our ancestors could one day reach a point to be so ashamed of and wish
to distance themselves so greatly from us. I know I have a head start on
them on that already. ;-)
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