Jon Ferguson
Darwin’s legacy. – Darwin and friends had some interesting original ideas that have helped take the world away from the infantile belief that God created the world in six days and then took a nice nap on the seventh. That silliness lasted way way too long, and certainly does not speak highly of the intelligence of the human race. -So now we have a different explanation for where we came from…the Darwinian version that speaks of “evolution” and the idea that “the fittest survive”. Certainly this is a step up from the Judeo-Christian explanation. But what does it really explain? – If “Evolution” implies that “higher” forms of life come from “lower” forms, does this explain anything? What does “higher” mean? More cells? Bigger? Stronger? Faster?…Certainly not faster…Is it a moral term? Is a man more valuable than a monkey? Why is a single-celled creature less good that a fifty-billion-celled creature given that there is probably far less that can go wrong with the simple beast than with the complicated one? For whatever reason, hasn’t man historically anointed himself king of the jungle? On what grounds has Western man crowned himself king? Initially, the Bible said God created him. That sense of royalty lasted a couple thousand years. Then God died in the minds of many thinkers. Darwin came to the rescue. Man became the summit of “evolution”. This idea that has soothed many parts of Western civilization. Man is still somehow on top. The Bible diminished the status of plants, animals, suns and moons, etc. and, unfortunately, to a large extent, so did Darwinism. A perfect example of this is the havoc that is caused in today’s world when someone calls someone else a “monkey” or a gorilla”!…Why is that an insult? Obviously, because monkeys and gorillas are considered to be lower forms of life. Why? Because man is said to have “evolved from them”, i.e., just like in the Bible, man is still thought to be somehow above “monkeys”…animals…plants…etc. If people were consistent they would also be offended when called an eagle or a lion. But for some ludicrous reason we give eagles and lions a different status than monkeys and gorillas. It is all consummate, unthinking nonsense. I believe that the day will come when thinking people will view Darwin’s theory exactly the way most thinkers today view the Bible…not because “things don’t evolve”, but because man is no more special than whatever he evolved from. He is simply different. But not better or higher. As history shows us, it takes intellectuals a long time to get a new perspective on things and “change their minds”. The idea of “god” was sacred for millennia. “Darwinism” has become sacred today. I firmly believe that it too will one day be considered archaic and that man will finally step off his pedestal and see existence very differently. – Here are a four things that I think will radically change: – 1) The idea that “the fittest” survive will be considered vacuous. To say “the fittest” survive is tautological nonsense. What survives survives…not because it is fitter or stronger or more intelligent, but simply because “it survives” – and it survives for a million reasons which are far beyond human comprehension. Creatures and species come and go…not because they are the fittest, but because shit happens and they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong conditions. This has nothing to do with being fit. If anything it has to do with being lucky (if, that is, we consider creatures that exist to be “lucky”). “Survival of the luckiest”will replace “survival of the fittest”. – 2) The notion that man is “free” (has free will) and that the rest of the creatures in the world (or universe) are not free and do not have free will. This idea is already beginning to lose ground. Blunt people confuse “choice” with “free will”. Of course we have a million choices every day, but so does a monkey. It can climb this tree or that tree. It can eat the banana or the carrot, etc., but that doesn’t make the part of the monkey that “decides” free and responsible! The same is true for humanity. No one knows why any creature “chooses” anything… – 3) The idea that man evolved from monkeys and gorillas. Do we think eagles evolved from flies? Do we think buffaloes evolved from beetles? Do we think the sun evolved from a campfire? Do we think the earth evolved from a grain of sand? Why do we think things evolved from other things? Why do we think existence is a neat comprehensible line? Why do we think existence “came from somewhere”? What if existence simply is and has no explanation! All of it! Every last drop! … I know this is a very difficult thought, but I believe one day it will be “thought”. – 4) Man will admit that existence – all existence – cannot be explained or understood. When this day comes, we will see everything in a different light. We will stop looking for “origins” and “causes” because we will have realized that all things go back infinitely. There will be no more built-in moral code to human life. We will see that all existence simply is what it is. All being will be seen as amazing and unfathomable, tragic and glorious. – “Creationism” and “Evolution” have answered two questions for Western civilization: “What is life”? and “Where did life come from”? Now we must ask, “Where did these questions come from?”… They came from man himself and they very much reflect what “humans” are made of. (Other “living creatures” don’t seem to ask these questions.) To the first question, “What is life?”, the human answer has always been both very simple and telling…Life is what is like me. Our entire vision of “life” is a reflection of ourselves. The sun, which is more than a million times bigger than the earth and upon which our “lives” depend, is never considered to fit into the category of “life”. The sun is infinitely “older” than any creature to walk the earth, but again, it is not considered to be a “living” thing. This, for me, is a huge error. Thinking “life” is what resembles us, is to create a prejudice that colors all our thinking about the universe. Because we see ourselves to be “born”, we think “life” has to be born. Because we see ourselves die, we think “life” has to have a similar fate. Because we see ourselves as coming from somewhere, we think “life” has to come from somewhere. Our anthropomorphism colors all our thinking about origins and how “things got to be what they are”. We cannot imagine that “things have always been”; we cannot imagine that the universe had no beginning; we cannot imagine that things didn’t come from anywhere; we cannot imagine that we were not created or did not evolve; we cannot imagine that ALL EXISTENCE is LIFE. – We are blinded by what we are. What we are taints our vision of everything. Both theories – “Creationism” and “Evolution” – reveal the kind of “minds” that human beings have. These theories don’t reveal the truth about existence; they reveal the truth about humans. – Let us assume now that all existence is “life”. So we ask the second question: Where did it come from? And I answer thus: It didn’t come from anywhere. How could it come from somewhere? It would have had to come from some other form of existence, which would also be part of “life”. – One day we will forget the notions of “creation” and “evolution” and we will declare that life didn’t have a beginning…life has always been and always will be, and that yes, life changes…constantly…but life is all that is and all that is has always been and always will be. – To resume: “Creationism” gave way to “Darwinism” which will give way “Infinitism”. – December 30, 2017