Our Evolutionary Paradise

Today is the second anniversary of the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo. Why don't we review this posting because I think the underlying reason that this is allowed to keep happening is how evolutionary theory has pervaded our thinking.

Of course we do go through the motions of being shocked and outraged when something like this happens. The victims will be memorialized, politicians will make the usual speeches at the site of the shooting, displays of flowers will be put up, and the shooter will be held up as the epitome of evil. But nothing actually changes and within a short time it will happen again.

I have long recognized that so much about how the world is today, the guns, the wars, the drugs, the number of people in prison, as well as how careless we are about destroying the planet, stems from how evolutionary theory has pervaded our thinking.

The defining book of evolutionary theory, "On The Origin Of Species", was published in 1859. Although the theory doesn't really try to explain how life originated people who didn't want to believe in God latched onto it as the way to explain how we came to be here without needing God.

Since 1859 evolution has pervaded the world's thinking. Let's have a look at how evolutionary thinking might have brought about the world that we have today.

The basis of evolutionary theory is that there will not be enough food and resources for every creature that could possibly exist. This leads to competition for the food and resources. The strong naturally triumph over the weak so that the strong survive while the weak die and go extinct. This is often referred to as "Survival of the Fittest".

Living things undergo random mutations, caused by such things as the effects of cosmic rays on genes. Most of these random mutations may be detrimental but some, such as greater than average strength or better eyesight, gave those creatures a better chance to survive long enough to reproduce, and thus pass along their superior genes. Over time this leads to the species being better suited to survive in it's environment.

A simple example of evolution is supposedly the giraffe. There are leaves on trees that are good for food. But it would be helpful to have a longer neck in order to reach higher. Just by random mutations some giraffes were occasionally born with longer necks. These could more easily access food and so were more likely to survive long enough to reproduce and raise their offspring. This passed along the genetic trait of having a long neck so that today all giraffes have long necks. Evolutionary theory is that it is slow and imperfect but turns out over the very long term.

An obvious area that we see evolutionary theory at work is in business. There is not enough customers for all potential businesses to survive. So what happens is the ones that can best adapt themselves survive while the others go out of business.

But what if evolutionary theory has permeated our thinking even beyond business? Since this idea is so important to us could it be that we are trying, whether consciously or unconsciously, to move evolution along by our own efforts?

Helping evolution along would actually be fairly simple. It would be to produce a lot of offspring and then make the world a dangerous enough place so that the weak and unworthy would be eliminated. What we would want is for only the strong and intelligent to survive.

Incredibly that is exactly what we have done. Maybe it was unconsciously and unintentionally, but we have created an evolutionary paradise.

It starts with having a lot of offspring. When "On The Origin Of Species" was published the population of the world was about one billion people. Today the population is eight billion. Some were born with beneficial random mutations, such as better eyesight, wisdom, intelligence and, strength. The evolutionary goal from this point is to eliminate all the rest, keeping their inferior genes out of the human gene pool.

Remember that evolution isn't some noble theory, it is the brutal Law of the Jungle. There is absolutely no sympathy for weakness. Only the strong must survive.

It took evolutionary theory a while to catch on. The final third of the Nineteenth Century was actually a pretty good time. In France it was called the "Belle Epoque". It was called the Victorian Age. In America it was also known as the Gilded Age. But in 1914 the west entered a war such as had never been seen before.

The strange thing about the First World War is that it wasn't really over anything. There were a few disagreements but no pressing reason for a major war. But what was absolutely wonderful about the First World War was it's contribution to evolution. It did a fantastic job of weeding out the weak, although the process wasn't perfect. 

By the way evolution has no place for heroics in battle or dying for one's country. The only goal is to survive and reproduce. People who are willing to die for their country are in line to be eliminated from the human gene pool. The century following the introduction of evolutionary theory could definitely be described as "The Century of Warfare".

The warfare of the Twentieth Century culminated in the development of nuclear weapons. But that could be a wonderful thing from an evolutionary perspective. If there was a nuclear holocaust it is highly likely that only the strong would survive, and this would move evolution along. There have been several "great dyings" in the history of living things, but it was theoretically the weak that died and so maybe it's about time for another one.

Anyone who believes in evolutionary theory must agree that guns are wonderful evolutionary tools. If there are numerous shootings not only will it weed out the weak and slow in the short term but, according to how the theory works, a race of people should eventually evolve that can move faster than bullets. That would be wonderful evolutionary progress.

Space travel by humans fits with evolutionary progress. It is known that living things began in the sea. This was necessary so that fragile early life would be protected from ultraviolet radiation. These early life forms would not be equipped to breathe and survive on land. It cannot be explained how but living things somehow made the jump from sea to land and somehow some survived and evolved into land creatures. Using the same logic if we just send a bunch of people to the moon somehow some will survive and evolve into moon people.

Modern vehicles are contributing to evolutionary progress. Those with superior senses and reflexes are less likely to get into traffic accidents and the strong are more likely to survive when they do occur. People who drive recklessly are more likely to be killed, but again this is evolutionary progress.

Many people believe that much more needs to be done about climate change. We know that we are destroying this planet and too many people don't seem to be too worried about it. But what about our evolutionary mindset? Climate catastrophe will help evolution along, just as periodic cataclysms in the earth's history have. The strong will be more likely to survive than the weak, and this will improve the human gene pool.

The Animal Apocalypse is part of this scenario. Considering all animals of all species it is believed that there are only about one-third of the animals alive today that there were fifty years ago. This is horrible but it fits with evolutionary theory. The strong animals will survive, the rest will go extinct.

It must be said that the world is much less moral today than it was in the Victorian Age. But the goal in evolution is to pass one's genes along as much as possible. If the objective is to get your genes out there then Victorian morality can only get in the way.

Drugs are very beneficial for evolutionary progress. Just as Penicillin was once considered as the wonder drug of antibiotics so Fentanyl is the wonder drug of evolution. Fentanyl is so deadly that anyone who is stupid enough to have anything to do with it can be removed from the human gene pool. Anyone who really believes in evolutionary theory, and wants to help it along, should be absolutely delighted about Fentanyl. 

Before Fentanyl, Cocaine and Heroin served the same purpose. Anyone who is stupid enough to take these drugs can be removed from the human gene pool. The real underlying reason for the drug epidemic is that the world has this evolutionary mindset and these drugs are doing so much to help evolution along.

There are also legal drugs that can become addictive and can kill. But opioids fit in with evolutionary theory as well. The only reason for people to take drugs is some kind of weakness, whether physical or psychological. Deaths from opioid overdose is another way of helping evolution along by eliminating the weak, thus keeping their genes out of the system.

Evolutionary theory can definitely be seen in America's tolerance of a high prison population. Make life more difficult for ordinary people by transferring proportionally more wealth to the rich. The capable and resourceful ordinary people will find a way to adapt. Those who resort to crime can be locked away in prison, where they can't reproduce.

This is not saying that there are people consciously trying to move evolution along. But evolutionary theory has effectively become one of the world's major religions and it must have an effect on our thinking. Every thinking person has some thought about how we got here and evolution is the refuge of people who don't want to believe in God. Few people would consider the world of today as a paradise but the world has turned into an evolutionary paradise, in so many ways just about what we would expect if we were consciously trying to help evolution along.