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Praise
the Lord. EVILution will no longer be forced on the children
of Kansas.
Soon,
maybe nobody will have to hear scientific theories that
might contradict the various mythologies of the unevolved
people of the world. Lord knows, we wouldn't want anyone
thinking that people would change and adapt to their surroundings,
mentally or physically. Certainly, with the millennium drawing
near, Christians and other religios and nuts everywhere
seem to be crying out for an end to evolution in its various
forms.
I am a proponent of the theory that humans have already
defeated evolution in any of its truly natural forms. That
is, we managed to build a world where we have enough food,
shelter, and tools that we have overcome the challenges
of most natural phenomena. We don't have to run faster,
climb trees more adeptly, or reproduce en masse to avoid
being erased. We don't generally have to worry about being
attacked and eaten by animals. We can't really "beat" things
like hurricanes, but at least we know enough to track them
and get out of the way. Still other natural disasters, like
earthquakes, are a little less predictable. Hell, a natural
disaster killing off tens, hundreds, or thousands of people
isn't about to wipe us out as a species. We wipe a lot more
of ourselves out each year by trying to control one another.
We pose a greater threat to ourselves than anything else
on the planet. It has practically come to a point where
it is only our own inventions that demand that we change.
It is possible that our own ability to prolong life, combined
with our capacity for stinking up the world, will lead us
to one day thrive on cancer and other disease, or at least
to adapt to their presence, and coexist. Even with all the
media attention to cancer, though, it's not like cancer
is killing us off at rates that will eliminate humankind.
I apologize for placing catastrophe and disease in such
impersonal terms, but that's what evolution is about— keeping
a species capable of reproducing for another generation
or two. Ideally, it's about more than survival; it's about
improvement and advancement. The problem is that when people
fear the basic mechanism, it's hard for them to get excited
about the higher possibilities.
While I am utterly sick of hearing about it, I must mention
the Y2K bug as it relates to evolution and the fear of higher
possibilities. Evangelicals and others frightened at technology
seem to be praying for complete destruction of the "principalities
and powers" that govern their lives. Y2K will be glorious
in razing the machines that now enslave us, such as computerized
banking, out-of-control information systems, and laser-guided
grocery shopping. And, while we're at it, we can get rid
of all that Internet porn.
Of course to believe such a crock is to believe that those
with a stake in "the way things are" will simply walk away
when things start to fall apart. They won't try to get everything
up and running again as quickly as possible, so as to preserve
things as sacred as market share or control over us all.
Perhaps
the fear of destruction of computers is not a fear at all,
but a comfortable belief for those who are afraid of evolution.
In the past, technology did not develop so rapidly that
humans really had to deal with it directly. In one's lifetime,
if one had been using a bone as a digging tool all along,
when somebody else thought to tie a stick to that bone,
to hell with following that development. "I've been digging
with a bone all my 28 years. I'll be dead in another six.
I ain't about to change now." Unfortunately for those people
who want to keep digging without the stick, the computer
is everywhere. It can be avoided to some extent, but not
completely. Hell, if you don't get your Social Security
check in the mail, you're probably gonna have to complain
to a computer. Adapt or stop complaining; and we all know
complaining is too much fun to abandon.
Anyone willing to believe in the Biblical story of the Tower
of Babel might view the Y2K threat in a bit of a mythological
way—that the world will soon be set right again. Yet those
believers might want to ask if it really is best to accept
that we are the same people who believed that we could actually
build a tower that would reach God; and worse yet, the same
people that believed in a God that feared we might, and
had to go to extreme measures to stop us. As the story goes,
rather than just letting humans realize the folly of what
they were doing, God panicked and had to scatter those people
involved in the construction project by forcing different
languages on them. They would no longer be able to communicate,
and therefore would be unable to make any more plans for
a coup d'etat aimed at heaven.
As we became more adept at overcoming communication barriers,
and even launched craft beyond our own world, where was
God to issue the big smack down? Surely if God was afraid
of a stone tower, Sputnik should have scared the hell out
of Him. So why would God wait until now to again shatter
our plans? Of course, it lies in the magical millennial
number 2000. If God was going to be bound by anything, we
all know it is human calendar systems.
When
the Y2K problem comes and goes, and the world does not end
(that's my bet anyway), all those who want an end to technology,
and want God to help, will have to think of some other justification
for God's actions or lack of action. They may even have
to think that perhaps God evolved to understand humans and
human endeavors more, and even to encourage them. Then again,
maybe God ceased caring or died out there all alone, upset
that we just wouldn't evolve like He'd planned.
Copyright
© 1999 Jonathan C. Schildbach
Jonathan
Schildbach is a 31-year-old graduate of the University of
Oregon who earns his living as a writer (of mostly anonymous
crap). Currently, he resides in Seattle with his wife, Mayumi,
and daughter, Jesse Garon. You can see some of his other
work at: The Control Voice www.ungh.com/control.
Copyright
© 1999 Jonathan C. Schildbach
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