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Darwin and the Wisdom of Our Ancestors
by Dr. Charlie Webb
| Was it cosmic coincidence or divine design when the two greatest liberators of all time were born on the very same day? Yep, Feb. 12, 1809, birthday for Abraham Lincoln, a humble freethinker who liberated more people from physical bondage than anyone in history; and birthday also for Charles Darwin, a very humble freethinker who liberated more people from mental slavery than anyone in history. |
Darwin's "dangerous idea" swept aside all the pompous philosophies and empty superstitions of the preceding millennia. |
"If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of Newton and Einstein and everyone else," explains philosopher Daniel Dennett. "In a single stroke, the idea of natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law." For the first time in history, human beings knew why they were here. Something more wonderful and far more real than gods was responsible. Think about it. How many of your ancestors died in childhood? Right. None! Almost four thousand million years of an unbroken family line, each generation conceived and surviving against lottery odds, all selected for the wisdom of their genes and the mettle of their will. Wow! |
There is no need for supernatural miracles when we already have natural ones. The process of evolution is automatic, a rule of nature: eons of variation and selection, creating complex libraries of survival guides known as genomes. This is the wisdom created by our ancestors, and this is why we are here today: all our ancestors were survivors. As the great biologist Richard Dawkins notes, "that is why we love life and love sex and love children." Natural selection has created a world "full of organisms that have what it takes to become ancestors." |
This is very powerful knowledge. But with this knowledge comes the realization that all ancestors die. There is no magic but love and truth in the formula for life. The gods have become unemployed and we are on our own. |
What magic we create must go to make a world where our children's children can survive. We were not intelligently designed, but we were naturally selected for brains that can design intelligently. Now that our eyes are open and we know how the world works, we should be able to choose wisely. Evolution never stops. |
"There is grandeur in this view of life," said Darwin in the conclusion of The Origin of Species, when we realize that "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved." |
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