Sunday, December 14, 2008

Darwin Revelation

Charles Darwin developed the theory that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor, the Theory of evolution. After reading different selections from Philip Appleman’s “Darwin” I began to develop my own ideas regarding human nature. By studying Darwin’s theory and the mass amounts of criticism that he received for it, I began to further think about human curiosity to know how the world began. After wrapping my head around this concept for a while, it led me to the idea that humans want one clear explanation to how the world was created. That it is difficult to except that there may be numerous answers to fundamental questions instead of everyone settling on just one. In our society especially humans want a single answer, even though the answer one wants may vary. This theme has been prevalent throughout the course. Multiple times the discussion has come up if Religion is fading out and Science taking its place, debate has thrived over this topic. It is difficult for humans to not know everything, and face that there are multiple explanations for the fundamental question of “how humans came to be?” The debate over this question has created both growth and destruction. Growth has occurred because humans have made multiple discoveries trying to answer these complex questions. Destruction because there have been numerous wars across the world due to differences in opinion regarding this question.
Darwin theory of evolution, and the reaction that it received, has only emphasized the idea of human nature for the need of only one answer. Frans De Waal selection on “Good Natured: The Origin of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals”, discusses this phenomenon. De Wall states, Even if animals other than ourselves act in a way tantamount to moral behavior, their behavior does not necessarily rest on the deliberations of the kind we engage in. It is hard to believe animals weigh their own interests against the right of others, they develop a vision of the greater good of society, or that they feel lifelong guilt about something they should not have done.” (Appleman 515) De Waal then continues to discuss the nature of human consensus. The idea that it is the nature of animals to look out for the good of the community as a whole instead of ones personal interest has been tested by humans. Humans in the past have chosen to be destructive towards one another instead of accepting various beliefs. Does human desire to be correct put a damper on the human species?
Although personally I believe in evolution based on information gathered from numerous experiments and studies, I think it is unrealistic that our world can thrive as a whole if one cannot except other perspectives. This notion of putting different theologies up against one another was discussed in the article “How to Teach Science to the Pope” by Michael Mason. Throughout this article the debate of science vs. religion is prominent, with the conclusion that science cannot fully explain religion in the same way that religion cannot fully explain religion and the world is to complex to understand it all.
Darwin has developed a theory of “how humans came to be” that is the most probable and has much scientific proof to back it up, but still some people do not agree. This has lead me to believe that when it comes down to it is not worth fighting over what is “right” but excepting that no matter what, opinions will always vary. By continuously fighting over different theories regarding complex question humans may most likely never fully answer it is only holding us back instead of allowing us to move forward and work together as a whole. Therefore my Darwin Revelation is rather indirect and broad, but my studies of Darwin and the reactions of his discoveries have made me realize that even with all the proof in the world humans will always have different opinions, it is human nature.



I chose this video because it portrays the theme of self destruction of our own species. As mentioned in the post the idea that humans desire to be right is putting a damper on the human species as a whole. This video is a rather humorous depiction of how fighting with one another eventually will lead to the destruction of humans and possibly our earth.

Work Cited:
Birdman12078. "End of Ze World." Youtube. 14 Dec. 2008. Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZMwKPmsbWE.

Appleman, Philip, ed. Darwin. 3rd ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

Mason, Michael. "How to Teach Science to the Pope." Discover Magazine. August 18, 2008. http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/18-how-to-teach-science-to-the-pope

Course Readings


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