Evolution and Specialness of Humanity

Man is one of the many species at the current tips of the branches of the tree of life, and although we do have abilities that have allowed us to make our mark on this planet like nothing before us, this does not make us special. There are many, many critters out there that can do things we can only dream of. They are not that special.You have been brought up in the word of God by those that love and surround you: each telling you that God is the truth and that God made us, and because of that we are special. Till you learned to read and write you were dependant on these ideological teachings for your world view. Now you can, and have, moved beyond that protected environment and can read things, and learn things that challenge, fundamentally, the mind set that was given to you. A mind set where you (along with the rest of man) are the special product of an all powerful and all loving God, who created man and set him apart on a pedestal from the rest of creation as his favoured children.You have admitted that you accept the Theory of Evolution as making sense, of having plenty of solid evidence to back it up and yet you reject it. You reject it simply on the strength that its implication is that YOU are not special through a divine mandate.We will ignore the fact that you can still invoke a GDI (god did it) for getting the whole thing rolling in the first place (Big Bang or Abiogenesis, take your pick) and also ignore the absurdity at failing to see the wondrousness of being a member of one of the truly amazing solutions to that trickiest of tricky puzzles that is called life, and look at a what I feel could be a closer problem.You have read lots of things here and, no doubt, elsewhere, and are learning. Learning not just about this subject or that subject but also how to make rational judgements from information gleaned from many diverse and oft contradictory sources. This is a tough lesson indeed and you are fast approaching the toughest one of the lot. That is to say recognising and accepting when a new understanding should replace a long held and cherished one.Now I am no psychologist or anything of that ilk but please give some thought to the following:
Is there a possibility that, whilst I can understand your argument about wanting to be special, there might be another motivation in not wanting to take the ToE to heart?Could that motivation be that if you do took the ToE to heart, and all its implications, then most of what you have been taught regarding God, genesis and your place in God’s Holy plan by your Mum, Dad, Family, Friends, Priest and church community could well be wrong? If what they taught you turns out to be wrong, then these people whom you love and trust to lead you and give you good solid information would have (however inadvertently) been lying to you. These kinds of realisation can lead to feelings of Confusion, Anger , Betrayal, Miss-trust, and not least of all Disappointment.Could it be that your refusal to accept the ToE is the manifestation of a subconscious fear of having that kind of reaction to those you love, and subconscious fear of the social reprisals you might receive?At one point in my past I learned some things about some friends of mine. This eventually forced me to re-evaluate my friendship with them (and indeed ended it). However I ignored this information (that I had verified as true) for a long time. I didn’t want to feel that kind of anger, resentment and disappointment towards these people whom I had loved and loved being with. Also I didn’t want the anger that I feared, and indeed was directed at me when I finally called them on information I had.You seem to be confused over all of this and I only mention all this to give you something to think on. I have done many things thinking I understood the reasons why at the time only to realise years later what my true motives had been, and frequently that realisation came as a welcome breath of fresh air.yousOhnhai

Thank you for your comments.I was just at a loss to reason in my own head why someone would practically stand up and say I believe in the ToE and then in the next breath totally refute it on the rationalisation that they didn’t like what accepting the thing they refute would mean for their perceived place in the universe.For years and years (actually my entire life) I have never got in My Mum’s face over anything I felt she was wrong about, or when I saw her tying her self in knots and falling into hate(long story, not telling). My reticence was not because I thought I was wrong, but a fear that she would take it as betrayal and hate me, that as her last emotional rock I could take that support from her, and I feared what would become of her if she felt that I was deserting her too. This however came to a head last year when for my mental health I could not continue. I picked a fight on the most stupid, insignificant of things, and then let rip. It hurt her, but I believe she took a few points on board and realised that I was saying it all out of a really deep respect, concern and love for her. We have been able to talk far more freely since.I know this is not the same But It, as an explanation, kind of made sense to me. Sort of: “even though I recognise that the ToE seems to make sense, and I don’t refute the evidence, I’m scared God/ Family wont like/love me any more if I admit that’s what I now believe, God wont think I’m special.”I’m not saying that Prophex does feel this way. It was just a idea in my head to try and rationalise the contradictions.You are right the Human species does indeed have many special qualities, chiefly among them is the ability to ”think about thinking’, to empathise, rationalise, conceptualise and many, many more. But the ability that has both given us so much benefit and also so much grief is the ability to ask ”Why?’ Remember when your children discovered that this word was the most wonderful word in the world? . . (ok that last bit was aimed generally not specifically)No matter how we got here, and no matter where we are going we are truly amazing creatures. I am proud (and frequently ashamed) to be a member of the human race.As to the start of the universe . I haven’t the foggiest . I’m happy to accept the scientific account of what happened back to what ever fraction of a second it is where even quantum physics breaks down into unpredictability. Beyond that it is really a cosmological guessing game and any one who says different . .. well as you said we can agree to differ on that one.This message has been edited by ohnhai, 22-10-2005 10:50 PM

Gonna be closed soon.... is it worth a new thread on the preasures of society and your peer group in beliefs and the reticence to give them up?