Jan 07 2009
Evolution Reconsidered
A few weeks ago, I posted a rumination called “Evolution is Religion” at this site, drawing fire from those who don’t wholeheartedly agree with me. My friend Andrew’s criticism of my take on evolution and religion, at his site: http://evolvingmind.info/blog/ , is as good as any. Check it out. For those of you more interested in the hard science of evolution, which speaks for itself, there’s a big spread on it in this month’s issue of Scientific American. For those of you still interested in trying to figure out what the hell I was saying in last month’s blog, read on.
Where did the first living cell come from? In a sense this question is rhetorical because there’s no possible way for us to reasonably answer it. I emphasize the word “reasonable” here to dismiss all wild-eyed theories about how it could have emerged, as well as all assertions based upon sacred texts. A similar question is: What existed before the Big Bang? That question has the time-bound word “before” in it, thus making it patently absurd to any serious student of cosmology. I trade in these paradoxes and absurdities on purpose to illustrate how little we really know about nature. We’ve filled entire libraries with the particulars of the natural world, but the whole of it still confounds us.
Knowing what we do about the particulars of the natural world, I don’t see how anyone can reject the mechanics of evolution outright. It appears to be written in DNA itself, not to mention the multitude of fossils we’ve collected over the past couple centuries. But all this suggests that nature as a whole is organized – a concept which begs the existence of some kind of organizing force. Call that force what you will. I call it God.
I understand the scientist’s natural revulsion to any kind of Godtalk. One only has to conjure up images of Copernican heretics burning at the stake to see why men of reason cringe at the mere mention of anything remotely religious. I also cringe when folks whip out their sacred texts, knowing that there’s a noose and/or torture chamber somewhere waiting for the likes of me, as well. But that doesn’t change what I see in wild nature. I see order as well as chaos at work in it, and I can’t for the life of me explain this.
As many people have pointed out to me over the years, my version of God is weak indeed. I doubt it would hold up in any court, be it religious or secular. But the wild keeps telling me that I’m onto something here. And for that reason, I will follow this line of thought to its logical conclusion. I just hope there isn’t a cup of hemlock waiting for me at the end of this road.
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