An Evolutionist's view on the meaning of life (and everything)

Post of the Month: May 2012

by

Subject:    | Really, what's so bad about it?
Date:       | 12 May 2012
Message-ID: | 37ab3665-6650-4d3e-93b7-768e1622ba02@t35g2000yqd.googlegroups.com

You know, I do. It means that I am related to all other life forms on the planet - a notion that fills me with delight. Every spider, every snake, every kitty, every giant redwood tree - these are all my relatives. I am at home. I belong here.

> Do you like the idea that your whole purpose in life, whether you're
> aware of it or not, is to eat, shit, fuck, die?

I like it perfectly fine, and have no fucking clue what your objection to it is.

> So do you have an opinion about why any high schooler should be forced
> to learn about evolution, when they'll almost certainly never use
> evolution in their life?

Well, you see, I used to be that high schooler. I was brought up christian fundamentalist, an old-earth creationist. Like you, I was taught that humans were "made in the image of God" and had a "higher purpose." My parents objected to evolution being taught in my high school biology class, until my teacher assured them that I wasn't required to "believe" it, only to know how it is supposed to have worked.

I found in that class an attachment to nature that I had never felt before - certainly not in any church where the unevidenced supernatural was being sold wholesale. I felt an upwelling of delight in, and affection for, my planet and its inhabitants - all of them, not just the other humans. I realized that the Earth and the universe and the other creatures were not just stage dressing for some cosmic morality play between Man and God, but formed a seemless web, all interrelated, back to the dark mists of time. We all fight the same battle, and I find that enobling.

So there's my testimony, prawnster. You can take your "higher purpose" and preach it all you like; I am not buying. I belong to this Earth, and this Earth belongs to me. I am a sister of everything that lives, and find that breathtaking in its implication.