What good is a tree? Except to the extent that it pleases me to look at it, of what value is it? Beyond the cool shade it offers me on a hot summer day why does it even exist? Were it not for the fact that I breathe in the oxygen it produces would not the space it takes up be equally suitable to that of a rock?
I might say a similar thing about elephants, gerbils, and robins; about tulips, bumblebees, and alligators, about daylilies, caterpillars, and whales. Indeed I might repeat myself endlessly for all living things (except for flies; flies obviously have no value, they are merely a colossal evolutionary mistake). Of what good are these various living things beyond the fact that I might gaze upon them and judge them as worthy or not of my attention?
It is not difficult for me to accept the premise of some religions that the whole of life on our little blue green planet (and possibly the Universe as well, although they seem less specific the farther out in space the circumference of this topic is allowed to expand) is designed for the pleasure of mankind and that we should have dominion over all of the Earth’s lesser creatures.
There will certainly be those of you who suggest that the planet was around for billions and billions of years before Homo sapiens came to dominate the planet. That is certainly true, but it seems equally true to me that, as in our own pitiful lives, it is mostly the case that the end result of a thing seldom occurs without a certain amount of tweaking from beginning to end to make the thing, whatever it is, what it ultimately becomes.
So too with the creation of life and our place in it; the Powers That Be obviously had a few dozen fitful starts before deciding on the end product. Us.
Evolutionists among us (and who really, is not) will offer the argument that just as Home sapiens ultimately evolved from Homo habilis and he from Australopithecus afarensis suggests that there will ultimately be a being who will evolve from us and who will put us on the same relative evolutionary scale to him that Homo habilis was to us.
Wouldn’t that then crush this argument to dust and toss it to the furthest reaches of the globe on a strong wind? It might, except for one small thing that I borrow from investment prospectuses you may be familiar with; past performances are no guarantee of future results. We do not know, and will never know, that we are not the best there can ever be in the evolution of a species. In Science fiction it is usually the case that the evolutionary process continues until even our physical bodies become superfluous and we become sentient energy. Any of you who have watched Star Trek know how that scenario ends.
But imagine that evolution is like the United States, a process losing its inventiveness, losing its drive and ambition, coasting on the glory and accomplishments of the past. If that were the case, and Homo sapiens are truly the end result of the long evolutionary process then it follows, does it not, that all of life, from a sightless amoeba at the bottom of the ocean to the majestic eagle, exists for our benefit, and our benefit alone.
Otherwise, I would suggest, why bother.
All of life, except for mankind, exists solely to procreate and die. How sad is that? How meaningless. At least if we acknowledge them, we give credence to their existence. We give it meaning. We give it a purpose.
And of the millions, if not billions, of species of life we have yet to discover? How are these for our benefit if we are not even aware of their existence? It gives us something to do, to discover them. It gives us a reason to get up in the morning.
And if you take nothing else from this little discourse, certainly you would agree that we all need a reason to get up in the morning.
I might say a similar thing about elephants, gerbils, and robins; about tulips, bumblebees, and alligators, about daylilies, caterpillars, and whales. Indeed I might repeat myself endlessly for all living things (except for flies; flies obviously have no value, they are merely a colossal evolutionary mistake). Of what good are these various living things beyond the fact that I might gaze upon them and judge them as worthy or not of my attention?
It is not difficult for me to accept the premise of some religions that the whole of life on our little blue green planet (and possibly the Universe as well, although they seem less specific the farther out in space the circumference of this topic is allowed to expand) is designed for the pleasure of mankind and that we should have dominion over all of the Earth’s lesser creatures.
There will certainly be those of you who suggest that the planet was around for billions and billions of years before Homo sapiens came to dominate the planet. That is certainly true, but it seems equally true to me that, as in our own pitiful lives, it is mostly the case that the end result of a thing seldom occurs without a certain amount of tweaking from beginning to end to make the thing, whatever it is, what it ultimately becomes.
So too with the creation of life and our place in it; the Powers That Be obviously had a few dozen fitful starts before deciding on the end product. Us.
Evolutionists among us (and who really, is not) will offer the argument that just as Home sapiens ultimately evolved from Homo habilis and he from Australopithecus afarensis suggests that there will ultimately be a being who will evolve from us and who will put us on the same relative evolutionary scale to him that Homo habilis was to us.
Wouldn’t that then crush this argument to dust and toss it to the furthest reaches of the globe on a strong wind? It might, except for one small thing that I borrow from investment prospectuses you may be familiar with; past performances are no guarantee of future results. We do not know, and will never know, that we are not the best there can ever be in the evolution of a species. In Science fiction it is usually the case that the evolutionary process continues until even our physical bodies become superfluous and we become sentient energy. Any of you who have watched Star Trek know how that scenario ends.
But imagine that evolution is like the United States, a process losing its inventiveness, losing its drive and ambition, coasting on the glory and accomplishments of the past. If that were the case, and Homo sapiens are truly the end result of the long evolutionary process then it follows, does it not, that all of life, from a sightless amoeba at the bottom of the ocean to the majestic eagle, exists for our benefit, and our benefit alone.
Otherwise, I would suggest, why bother.
All of life, except for mankind, exists solely to procreate and die. How sad is that? How meaningless. At least if we acknowledge them, we give credence to their existence. We give it meaning. We give it a purpose.
And of the millions, if not billions, of species of life we have yet to discover? How are these for our benefit if we are not even aware of their existence? It gives us something to do, to discover them. It gives us a reason to get up in the morning.
And if you take nothing else from this little discourse, certainly you would agree that we all need a reason to get up in the morning.
