Evolution

Evolution...

In the beginning there was the World, and all around was good but inorganic. Chemicals reacted freely as they must according to Universal Laws. From this hot-bed increasingly complex chemical reactions took place in complex hydo-carbons to produce the first recognisable organic proteins. None of this happened without one chemical being modified by its contact with another, and in doing so, both chemicals were changed except in catalytic reactions.

Over time the complexity of the proteins grew and grew, and different combinations of those proteins came to exist from the simplest forms of basic reactions. Eventually, the chance interactions of proteins produced a recognisable life-form: a single-cell 'living thing'.

Was anyone around to judge life as being sacred and to tell the 'chemicals' they should not react further with others? No, because evolution had not progressed that far.

Further reactions took place, and the complexity of the organisms grew, but all of this was in the absence of mankind. There was no 'man' to worry about treading inadvertently on embryonic life-forms, but some forms of life evolved at the expense of other life-forms, even at the basic chemical level. Some creatures became poisonous to other creatures, both as a form of protection and as a form of attack to assist in their survival-hunt for food.

Creatures began to be differentiated in their evolution on the basis of their food sources: anything using photo-synthesis was a 'plant' and used carbon-dioxide from the air and minerals from the earth on which they stood in order to grow whilst returning oxygen to the atmosphere, thus poisoning anything which was not tolerant to oxygen in the atmosphere. In growing, the 'plants' needed sunlight, so those that grew taller and broader shaded those which were less successful in their growth. The successful ones eclipsed the others by their success.

'Herbivores' developed who could use the plants as an easily accessible form of energy, but that meant ingesting the plants. Plants grew wise to this in their evolution and began to develop attractive 'fruit' to ensure they were eaten so that their seeds would be carried further away before being dropped in healthy nutrient-rich manure produced by whichever animal consumed them.

Was anyone around to judge life as being sacred and to tell the 'herbivores' they should not eat plants? No, because evolution had not progressed that far.

Eventually, animals developed which discovered (probably through competing for food) that eating other animals provided an even-easier and more nutrient-rich meal than plants, allowing less time to be spent each day in the survival-race. These were classified as 'carnivores'.

Was anyone around to judge life as being sacred and to tell the 'carnivores' they should not eat meat? No, because evolution had not progressed that far.

Later, evolution produced a breed which could eat anything from plants through to animals, and could produce and use tools as a way of making life even easier. This evolved-creature had to spend even less time on basic survival so had more time to think about other things. As a result of ensuring there was enough food for self and family, this breed wanted 'more', so they began to band together and take more - more from the plants, more from the animals, and more from each other.

Evolution had not removed the survival instinct from them, so they continued to take more than they needed, just in case, but they began to feel guilty about doing so. Instead of stopping, evolution had made their survival instinct sufficiently strong to ensure they had at least enough (wherever possible). 'At least enough' led to surplus, and surplus led to fighting - the 'haves' and 'have-nots' always in dispute.

Eventually this breed had more than enough for enough of them for long enough that they began to look around and be concerned for those who did not have enough. They began to be concerned about what they had done to the plants and to the animals as well as to each other. Some even had enough that they could sit back and criticise others for their awareness of what some had done wrong in their treatment of other life-forms whilst conveniently forgetting that everything was not 'fine' for billions of years before this breed had appeared.

The web of causality had begun billions of years previously so why was it necessary suddenly to assign responsibility and guilt for things which were beyond their control but were consequential from their evolution? It wasn't.

'Survival' is a selfish thing and always has been. We are one step in an evolutionary survival process. The process began before we were here, has not stopped and will not stop now just because we are here, and it will not alter because of (even misplaced) feelings of guilt. We can affect its direction by cause and effect - by what we choose to do and what we choose not to do - but in doing-so we need to be aware of the consequences of our actions. Who can predict how one apparently simple (positive or negative) action will affect the course of evolution for all time? Staring myopically through a powerful microscope won't help either.

"Do what thou will that it harm none" is an ethic some choose as a principle, but what value is the principle if insufficient consideration is given to what we are harming and how we are harming it, not only now, but also in the future? At one level, the new DigitalVideoDisc player that I want might not seem to harm anyone - I just go to the store, hand over my money and walk away with it. What about its production though? What about the raw materials which had to be extracted from the ground in order for me to have a DVD player? What about the natural habitats which had to be disrupted even to build the factory in which the DVD player was produced? What about the energy which had to be used in its production, and the effects of producing and using the energy on the environment? Suddenly the DVD player doesn't look quite so innocent in its simple purchase, does it? If 'handsome is as handsome does' then the same may be true also for 'selfish'? How far exactly have we evolved?

If mankind ceased to exist tomorrow, who would mourn our passing, and why? The plants? The animals? The birds? The fish? The insects? Who exactly? And who would replace us as the next dominant breed?