JanisChambers
Thinker
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2007
- Messages
- 174
This lecture is very insightful, it really summed it up for me .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejlsvn6vMXU
There are those who would want to equate Evolution with moral decay, in a way they may be right but yet for the wrong reasons. The Fact of Evolution shows a history of beings fighting for dominance in a world not regulated by some form of divine plan. It is a bloody tale of creatures with claws not sharp enough, or shells not strong enough to survive the vicious hunger of a stronger foe.
Evolution is not kind of the individual, it it an unfaithful lover always favoring the stronger champion. If you believe yourself to be the strongest or the most cunning, willing to be a murderer, a robber, or despot; then you are falling into the same ancient folly and will be betrayed by natural selection.
Evolution is real, it is the way we came into being... however it is our intellect that has taken over the ancient selective pressure and so now we have the potential to evolve ourselves. We also are no longer subject to our environment (at least not to the extent as many other animals). When it grows cold we generally don't have to depend on the ones with less body hair to die off, we simply make coats. Of course one of the greatest twists is our ability to effect the whole of the environment, including the other humans that make it up.
So how does the individual exist in a nature that favors the statistical victors and only until a better challenger arrives? The answer is in the control of the environment as apposed to the environment controlling them. A social contract is written by those who wish to survive, harmony is made in the whole of the environment, assuring survival and greatly limiting conflict.
So, if you really want a good parable and a solid warning against disharmony and power mongering, may I suggest you put down your ancient Authority Driven God stories and pick up an Anthropology Text book instead.
Important: I am *not* saying Evolution is no longer a factor in humanity, it is and will continue to be so. Also I do have to point out that our large brains are thanks to evolution. It it wasn't for the selective pressures for our ancestors to hide and trees from certain hungry non-climbers when we wouldn't have developed the hand. It was the hand and the earliest mechanical augmentations (tool use) that eventually led us to more complex ways of living and thinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejlsvn6vMXU
There are those who would want to equate Evolution with moral decay, in a way they may be right but yet for the wrong reasons. The Fact of Evolution shows a history of beings fighting for dominance in a world not regulated by some form of divine plan. It is a bloody tale of creatures with claws not sharp enough, or shells not strong enough to survive the vicious hunger of a stronger foe.
Evolution is not kind of the individual, it it an unfaithful lover always favoring the stronger champion. If you believe yourself to be the strongest or the most cunning, willing to be a murderer, a robber, or despot; then you are falling into the same ancient folly and will be betrayed by natural selection.
Evolution is real, it is the way we came into being... however it is our intellect that has taken over the ancient selective pressure and so now we have the potential to evolve ourselves. We also are no longer subject to our environment (at least not to the extent as many other animals). When it grows cold we generally don't have to depend on the ones with less body hair to die off, we simply make coats. Of course one of the greatest twists is our ability to effect the whole of the environment, including the other humans that make it up.
So how does the individual exist in a nature that favors the statistical victors and only until a better challenger arrives? The answer is in the control of the environment as apposed to the environment controlling them. A social contract is written by those who wish to survive, harmony is made in the whole of the environment, assuring survival and greatly limiting conflict.
So, if you really want a good parable and a solid warning against disharmony and power mongering, may I suggest you put down your ancient Authority Driven God stories and pick up an Anthropology Text book instead.
Important: I am *not* saying Evolution is no longer a factor in humanity, it is and will continue to be so. Also I do have to point out that our large brains are thanks to evolution. It it wasn't for the selective pressures for our ancestors to hide and trees from certain hungry non-climbers when we wouldn't have developed the hand. It was the hand and the earliest mechanical augmentations (tool use) that eventually led us to more complex ways of living and thinking.