On Thinking Like Darwin

On Thinking Like Darwin

On November 24th, 1859, a book was published that would change almost everything about our perception of the world, and become perhaps one of the most simultaneously praised and vilified works of modern writing.  On The Origin of Species radically altered not only our scientific perception of the world, but introduced a dramatically new way of looking at all that surrounds us.  Darwin's genius wasn't so much his knowledge of biology or the culmination of his work as a naturalist.  It was in his ability to identify an over-arching process by which the world operated, despite all the current certainty otherwise.  Evolution via natural selection isn't merely a means of explaining how organisms came to exist as they have, it can contribute in concept to understanding almost all naturally-occurring phenomenon.

As we near the 250th anniversary of Darwin's iconic book, it seems fitting to look back and take stock of how far we've come...and how far we still have yet to go.  Evolutionary theory has made great strides since Darwin set about distilling the information from his voyage on the HMS Beagle, largely due to unstoppable advances in genetics.  Still, natural selection is to this day the overwhelmingly accepted theory for how speciation occurs.  One would be hard-pressed to find anyone within the scientific community who has an alternative (or verifiably supported by evidence) idea about how species originated.  It is easy to see how this consensus marks one of the greatest achievements of mankind, for what purpose could be more admirable or breath-taking than the intimate understanding of how we arrived where we are?

Yet, in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, there are an increasing number of individuals and groups (by-and-large supported by fundamentalist religions) that reject Darwin's grand theory based not on an understanding and informed alternative, but on entrenched ideology and an irrational fear of something inconsequential to the very beliefs that are supposed to be in such imminent danger due to our friend Charles.  It has been said many times, but must be said again: biological evolution makes zero predictions about the origins of the universe or terra firma.  Evolutionary theory, in no way, threatens the theistic belief in (a) god(s).  Rather, for most people, it opens the mind to the brilliance of what naturally is.  It is not the fault of Darwin or his theory that this realization deprives god of a role he/she/they classically holds.  It is this death-grip onto things "just as they are" that is so poisonous to our development, both personally and as a species.  Humanity would be nothing without our ability to adapt, and it would do vehement skeptics a world of good to consider the moralistic and existential arrogance of dismissing evolution out-of-hand because it doesn't agree with their scruples.

So, as we embark on the continued journey forward, it is and will always be worth reminding ourselves of the necessity of holding onto our convictions only so tightly that they can be set down without breaking in the light of greater understanding.