It has become natural to think in Darwinian terms. Van Rijn deduces how the Diomedeans became intelligent. Their environment offers only two options:
"Hibernate or migrate! And if you migrate, then be smart enough to meet all kinds of trouble, by damn!'" (p. 57)
More generally, he reflects that:
"'Natural selection...is all well and good, if nature is obliging to pick you for survival. Otherwise gives awful noises about tragedy.'" (ibid.)
But surely the fact that all life is temporary local negative entropy makes it tragic even for the survivors?
In the summer of 1973, I worked in a gift shop in Maine where we sold scrimshaw. The shop manager, Sewell, told me that whales swim forward with open mouths and a single row of teeth that trap plankton. I asked, "How can they have a single row of teeth if they have never used them for chewing?" Sewell replied, "That's the theory of evolution!"
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
People like this gentleman you once knew can get me irritated! He seemed to have been one of those evangelical/"low church" Protestants whose naive, even crude misinterpreting of the Bible makes Christians look like idiots. I recall how Anderson wrote about that inadequate POV in his essay "Science and Creation."
Happy New Year! Sean
Well, he has the courage of his convictions...8-).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, and many evangelical Protestants are far nicer people than a grumpy old curmudgeon of a Catholic like me! (Smiles wryly)
Happy New Year! Sean
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