Brian R writes: “What if evolution is the basis for the origin of life and species. And with enough time everything is getting perfected. So maybe one day God will evolve. And then kick everyone's butt who didn't believe he could/would show up. What then?”
Brian: Please do not confuse my statement as to the inevitability of atomic instability with the advent of life. The half life of radioactive elements is inevitable, life is not! The most common misconception pertaining to the evolutionary process is that it is linear and especially that it is “progressive”. In reality evolution is non linear, random, and most importantly meaningless. Ask any blind cave fish. Ever since Darwin spoiled the Sunday sermon people have been trying to reconcile the obvious truth of evolution with their personal desire to find meaning and direction in the universe. As a result, many people have imagined that the universe is inevitably evolving toward a “higher consciousness”. There are many variants of this from Buddhism to “Gaia theory” to new age psychobabble. It is a attractive and comforting thought. Maybe things really will get better? (But I don’t think so, and there is no evidence to support it whatsoever!) >From our presumed “perch” it is easy to look down upon the worm and imagine that we are the crown of “creation”; or as you imagine, that we are the progenitors of god (in a way we are, since we invented Him!), but in reality we are all just trapped here whirling around in the void. If worms were capable of being delusional they would no doubt suppose themselves far superior to microbes, yet microbes rule the world! I find the nearly universal human preoccupation with the idea of god to be interesting for what it reveals about the underlying structure of the human mind. As Steven Jay Gould has pointed out many times in his many books, it is by studying the “errors” of evolution, such as the famous Panda’s thumb, that the process is revealed. The universality of our delusion proves that we are “hardwired” for such nonsense by the evolutionary process. It was no doubt a beneficial delusion in it’s day, but like the adaptive value of tribal cohesion, that day has passed and it’s time to wake up! Sleaze ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
