To the editor:
I read
the first part of George Civile’s letter about Darwinism (Theory of
evolution by natural selection) a few weeks ago, but dropped out when he
started to mention God. As a scientist let me point out that science
can be disruptive. Darwin was trying to figure out how a one-celled
organism billions of years ago led to multi-celled organisms such as
ourselves. He hypothesized that evolution (mutations in genes)
interacted with the environment over billions of years to produce plants
and animals. The first animal was changed by evolution into many
different animals (the egg came before the chicken) to fit all the
ecological niches available.
The
common ancestor of humans and chimps evolved about 6.7 million years
into two very different species, probably due to random mutations. Then
that pre-human species evolved into several species and so on until
Homo sapiens (us) appeared. Our unusually large and well-connected
brain appears to be due to mutations in certain genes and epigenetic
proteins. The future will show whether an animal with
self-consciousness and cleverness is a good idea.
I
happened upon a novel written by a man who had written a number of lousy
cowboys in space novels (I can’t find the book on my bookshelves).
After accidentally entering a spaceship within Stonehenge, the
protagonist lands on the worlds that are the stops before the final
stop. After a number of further adventures, on the last page he
declares that there is no Purpose To His Life. He has to make his own
purpose. I agree with him.
I think
it was the scientist Stephen Jay Gould who declared that if evolution
started again at some point millions or billions of years ago, humans
would probably not exist. Evolution is random. So unless you believe
in a goddess, god or a multiple thereof, you have to decide on your
purpose in this existence that produced you by chance. A different
sperm or a different egg that met would have produced someone else.
That makes who you are and what you do due to you (and the society you
live in and the environment that affects the functioning of your
genes). Take credit for the good and responsibility for the bad from
your actions.
Andi Weiss Bartczak
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