The more one learns about the
physical universe of the large and the small, the inert and the alive, the more
wondrous it becomes. That all this should simply be is itself amazing. That we
now can get a decent idea of the hows and whys through our investigations only
adds to the awe.
I think that it is sad that so
many in this country don’t appear to have the education, experience, or
proclivity to see beyond their immediate level of experience. Their faith overrides
the knowledge we have learned as a species about our environment and beyond.
It is clear that viruses,
bacteria, and insects become resistant or change in response to the environment
humans present them. Bacteria species will become resistant to antibiotics we
use to combat them over time. The HIV virus has responded to our treatment to
AIDS and made many of our treatments less effective over time. And there are
now insecticide resistant insects that we created using chemical pest controls.
We have known about this for
many decades.
These are clear examples of
evolution.
And yet so many people don’t
accept the concept of evolution. They can’t or don’t want to grasp the concept.
I believe that they find the concept threatening. They can’t see the wonder of
us and everything else being here from such simple processes as variation,
opportunity and chance.
It is the same when looking at
the really big -- the universe. The concept of measuring something by the
distance light can travel over time seems to be very hard for them to believe.
It makes us insignificant. The terms of “I,” “you,” and “they” loses so much of
their impact.
Dr. Carl Sagan drives the point
home with his commentary about the pale blue dot in a last
photograph taken by the Voyager space craft before it headed beyond the outer
planets. It is a very small dot and we are the small creatures upon it.
The next time you see a leaf
fall from a tree, realize it took 13.7 billion years for that to happen. And
you saw it. That is humbling!
To give the power of the forces
of our lives to an unknowable entity is an act of conceit. It makes us believe
that we are more important than we are. It denies who and what we are. It
denies what everything around us is. To assign all of creation to an unknown
entity is to copout from the real wonder of this place. It is a shrug to
reality.
Yes, we as life may be unique.
At least for this solar system we are.
We take life, ours and all other
life, pretty much for granted. We work hard and passing judgment as to what is
good and what is bad. The problem is that there is only life.
It is a tough universe out there
and in order to survive all creatures have had to find ways to make a living.
Good and bad generally are a point of view relative to the individuals and the
events, not a Large Scale Moral Question. It is when the actions of one species
knowingly threaten the existence and well being of a number of species that one
could ask about the morality of certain actions.
A comet destroying the reptilian
mega-fauna on the earth, was that an immoral act? Was it a random event or did
what we like to call a deity send the comet on its way so that mammals
including us could take over? Was that the plan? Did God say that the dinosaurs
weren’t doing anything with the earth so why not make room for us? Is God
disappointed in his choice after seeing the mess we are making of the place?
If there is a God, then he
didn’t make us smart enough. We don’t seem to be able to control ourselves and
stop trying to destroy what was so reasonably balanced before we got fire. And now
many of us seem to expect God to step in and save us.
On one level, we could look at
the universe and say that it is all God’s work. We could lean on that belief
and make decisions thinking that He/She/It cares about us. We will be
disappointed when our pleading prayers go unanswered, or at least we don’t get
the answer we want. We are selfish creatures to believe that He/She/It cares.
It is probably better to make
the gods optional in our lives, but live with a moral code that understands we
are all in this together. All of us, from humans to dogs and cats to bees and
spiders to snakes and mice and fish to elm trees and scrub brush to carrots and
broccoli. All life on this planet is in this together. This is our spot, our
blue dot of life. At the moment nowhere else appears to have it.
And what we do affects everything and everybody else, so
we must do it carefully.
And
we don’t care about ourselves or what is around us.
We are killing our planet. We
will never get it to go back to what it was when we appeared on the scene. It
is all going to come crashing down upon us through our greed, ignorance,
arrogance, and short sighted stupidity.
I wish I were wrong.
But I have serious doubts that I
am.
