Evolution affects all organisms, of course. The major way in which it affects human beings differently from all other animals is that only humans can not accept the truth that they simply “are.” Although no one seems to care much, and most will openly accept that dinosaurs ruled the planet for millions of years, this does not bring into the question whether or not those reptiles were made in “God’s image.”
Only human beings seem somehow offended and unable to accept the truth of our belonging to the natural world.
This is tragic for many reasons, not the least of which is that, any creator who came up with nature, (or whether that Nature could itself go by a label of “God.”) certainly would cherish truth. Another tragedy is that, by thinking that we humans are somehow deemed to be above nature, we destroy that which gives us life.
In other words, until we recognize that the divine is in all, from our molecules up to our Milky Way, we will not continue to evolve. If we destroy our host, which is planet Earth, perhaps we are not meant to continue.
If we value that a human life is more sacred than any other form of life, it is to our detriment, as biodiversity makes air, water, and soil possible. It is also tragic in that, when we do not see the sacred in nature, we become an isolated species apart from nature which kills itself daily with toxins, trash, and war. This war is not only waged with human killing human, but with humans in their loss of belonging, killing the water, air and soil itself, along with all its constituent animate and inanimate parts.
It is also, surely a way to spit upon God and the creation.
Evolution affects us in ways people seldom think about as well. We evolved in small bands, and within reach of recognizing the sky, the seasons, the patterns of nature, and one another as reliable tribal members.
That is all lost with modernity. We are no longer in touch with the source of our food, air and water. It comes as if by magic and at the cost of alienating one another, as well as biodiversity. We live in doors, do not know many people next door, and we do not even want to know the suffering or plundering of our food sources, as it would is very bad and unwelcome news. We evolved this defense mechanism of denial for survival. It is ironic that this very mechanism may be what ends our line of our primate evolution for good.
Seven billion people is just too many to sustain anything like our current lifestyles for very long. It is estimated that we are already using the resources of almost two planet earths, if we were to count the externalized costs of living on “cheap” fuels, and destruction of arable land for crops, or over-fishing our oceans.
Science has known for a while now that evolution is not a matter of the simple becoming complex, or the monkey becoming a human. It is not a pattern of progression, but much more a pattern of deeply interwoven membership to a larger community, and entity, which we call Nature. Perhaps if we are to save our species, we can begin by accepting the grandeur of this plan, just as Darwin said in his summary on the Origin of Species.
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Why Evolution is Important now what Evolution Teaches Belonging to Earth Heals Humanity Evolve
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What is Evolution Evolution in Action how Evolutions Works how we Evolved how Genes Work Darwin
The Debate on Evolution the Theory of Evolution why Theory Matters Darwin and Society