January 07, 2008
Jam tomorrow....
Evolutionary HymnPosted by John Weidner at January 7, 2008 08:13 PM
Lead us, Evolution, lead us
Up the future's endless stair;
Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.
For stagnation is despair:
Groping, guessing, yet progressing,
Lead us nobody knows where.
Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,
In the present what are they
While there's always jam-tomorrow,
While we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we're going,
We can never go astray.
To whatever variation
Our posterity may turn
Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,
Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,
Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,
Towards that unknown god we yearn.
Ask not if it's god or devil,
Brethren, lest your words imply
Static norms of good and evil
(As in Plato) throned on high;
Such scholastic, inelastic,
Abstract yardsticks we deny.
Far too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature's simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly,
'Goodness = what comes next.'
By evolving, Life is solving
All the questions we perplexed.
Oh then! Value means survival-
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present,
Standards, though it may well be).
-- C S Lewis
Very good. I hadn't read this before.
I'll send it on to web friends who can't understand how I can be a rational person and still not worship at the altar of evolution.
If evolution did not affect a students view of man and society the materialists would not care if it was taught. Aesthetics can be as good a tool to know the truth as a microscope or a c14 test.
If evolution did not affect a students view of man and society the materialists would not care if it was taught.
Nonsense. In fact, just the opposite - if evolution didn't contradict a literal interpretation of the bible, the anti-evolution people wouldn't care if it were taught.
Imagine someone decided that we needed to teach Leibniz's monads instead of the molecular theory of matter - me and my fellow materialists would be utterly up in arms about such idiocy. I mean, sure, teach it - but it's best approached in philosophy class, not in chemistry or physics. And certainly not in place of the molecular theory.
The reason evolution is such a hot topic is NOT because of the materialists - it's because of the anti-evolution crusaders.
You are both right.
And 97% of the combatants don't seem to notice the actual thing itself, the mysterious and beautiful reality.
Yet we are immersed in it. It is all around us. In my garden I have Fuscias that are tiny ground creepers. And a tropical Rhododendron. And two different deciduous trees that have evolved the needles and growth habits of conifers.
And I'm in a big city, but have raccoons, skunks and possums flourishing around me---You can bet that certain genes have been favored in those populations! (And I think Charlene is creating a new race of squirrels that can live off the most loftily-hung bird feeders.)
book recommendation: The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
Posted by: John Weidner at January 10, 2008 09:39 AM
