An Observation on Darwin's Origin of Species

"Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred

million years to prepare the world for him is proof that

that is what it was done for. I suppose it is. I dunno.

"If the Eiffel Tower were now representing the world's age,

the skin of paint on the pinnacle-knob as its summit would

represent man's share of that age; and anybody would perceive

that that skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon

they would, I dunno."--Mark Twain, The Damned Human Race, #1

Having read The Origin of Species, one would be hard pressed to say that Charles Darwin was anything but open-minded. He presents to the world an idea that was "crazy" and revolutionary in its time. It is not so much that Mr. Darwin writes about the "evolution" of all species on the planet, it is that he provides an alternative theory of how all beings came to be the way they are at this moment in time. He frees one from the restrictive belief that man is the king of all animals, and that the planet was made for humans. Four-hundred years earlier he would have been burned and quartered and hanged before he could say "Natural Selection." History afforded him the time to be daring, but the act itself could not have been any easier.

I am speaking, of course, of the paragraph on page 438(Penguin) where he concludes that each and every living being on the planet is "ennobled" because they exist. The nobility rests in the fact that each and every animal alive beat fantastic odds to be alive at this moment. In all recorded and researched time the number of extinct animals far outnumbers the number which currently exist. What's more, the animals living now have no certain future and will certainly fade away into nothing.

GOOD GOD!

I had trouble thinking of a metaphor sufficient enough to describe the terror of the arrogant human public once those word were understood. (This might work) It is like finding out that you are going to the Dentist when you have been expecting to go to Disney Land. For the ten year old and the zealot, sheer terror! While your father insists that the cavities must be drilled, you won't listen to logic because rides, shows and attractions would certainly be much better. So you decide to hold your breath and kick the back-seat of the car and scream, scream, scream. You do not care at this point if your father likes the situation, for all you know he might have been a bigger Mickey Mouse fan that you will ever be, selfishness is not akin to companionship.

I have often wondered what it means to the ignorant or the desperate people who ever have, or continue to, fight the idea of "Animal-Equality." The power of L. Ron Hubbard and Jesus Christ are often too much for the hopeful to bear. Dreams, fears and loose wires breed closed-minded individuals. The ideas which Darwin sets forth are not mythological, in fact, they are logical and scientific. How could you explain your belief in God's creation of Man to a Martian? Wouldn't the theory of "Natural Selection" reflect the higher minds we propose to have? Maybe. But on the other hand, if you had the choice to believe in eternal life or instant oblivion, what would you believe?

Today, I still find people fighting over the truth of Charles Darwin's theories. I could spend hours reading and listening to reason's why this guy is right, and this guy is wrong. But the high priced games between the god-squad and the talking-monkeys-in-lab coats mostly bore me. I prefer to look at the natural world as the most stunning and wild events of every day. Heck, I am alive, after all. If I wasted my time mulling over the absolute truth of it all, I would not be able to dig how beautiful it is.

--Grandpa