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September 25, 2008

A More Realistic View of Human Nature


As mentioned earlier, we humans compete with our brains. What we seem to have lost sight of since Darwin came up with the concept now known as Evolution is that his explanation (“survival of the fittest”) implied a competitive relationship between various life forms without actually stating that one exists or exploring the concept in much detail. An additional implication, more widely accepted in Darwin’s day than now, was that the universe created by an omnipotent humanoid god would presumably be an orderly one. Given that organized religions were seriously divided over Darwinism by the Twenties, it shouldn’t surprise us that ardent creationists, who still abound, are working harder than ever to advance their agenda politically, a fact suggesting that religious beliefs have always influenced political reality despite the express wishes of America’s founders (also contemporaries of Malthus) to the contrary.

What we seem to have been even more oblivious to is that the population danger Malthus warned of wasn’t as simple as he believed, nor would it necessarily be restricted to starvation resulting from overgrowth of the available food supply. Rather; it is proving considerably more complex and seems to involve many of the attractive dangers produced by Science, the intellectual tool once assumed to be a key to human progress, but one we now find we may have exploited; and with uncertain consequences.

Doctor Tom

Posted by tjeffo at September 25, 2008 09:58 PM

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