Happy new year 2010!
        DO ALL YOU CAN FOR MOTHER EARTH
WHATEVER THAT IS.......................THANKS

A point of View © 1996.
“The miracle of evolution. Two different books published in November.”
By Paul V. Montesino, PhD, MBA.
  

In a book review penned by Michiko Kahutani in the New York Times (November 14, 2009) about “Going Rogue,”  Sarah Palin’s memoirs, the ex-Wasilla mayor, ex-Alaska Governor and ex-Vice-Presidential Republican candidate, is quoted as saying a tired creationist phrase that she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees. In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.” (Notice that she refers to Him, not to her.) Alleluia!

I have not read Ms. Palin’s book and am not sure if I can budget enough time or money to spend reading the book. As I told you folks in a recent article, my reading targets these days are about philosophy or empirical subjects and not the anecdotal type. Her quote about “the theory”-it has to be about evolution of course- coming from the analysis of another columnist in another newspaper is a different story. All of a sudden Ms. Palin has become an expert in biology and dismisses evolution with very little concern for the current scientific evidence that proves it is no longer a theory but a simple reality that powers the genetic work being done in laboratories all over the world. She has taken only a few worn out words and clichés to refute what has been written authoritatively about the subject for a long time by others, and probably took a cue from former President George W. Bush who was of the opinion that the “jury was still out” in the matter of evolution, although I am not sure if he was talking about some sort of local driving violation trial in Crawford, Texas, that I was unaware of.

That is not unusual. People who want to patronize religious extremists to obtain their respect and acceptability only have to kiss Charles Darwin good bye to obtain approval for all else they say. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” as they say. And to continue with the main thrust of my article and the benefit of those who would agree with her statement that “My life is in His hands (God’s) I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over,” I really “invite” you to relax. The Vatican, no scientific laboratory itself by any means, has accepted the theory of evolution as truth although it emphasizes that the hand of God is written all over it.

In other words, you can still believe that our grandparents were fishy or were hanging from trees and also that God was directly involved in their creation. I happen not to agree (not all human beings belong in Ms. Palin’s category of “thinking, loving beings” for sure; jails in Alaska are not empty) but I am willing to contribute that noble thought to the insecure who may still believe that evolution and God may be incompatible and are afraid of the consequences of thinking otherwise. Who am I to know?

But this article is not about Ms. Palin or her book, but the fact that her uneducated foray into the mysteries of biology is not the only one deserving my attention these days. There are others. Admiral Robert FitzRoy is better known as the Captain of the HMS Beagle, the British ship that in 1820 carried Charles Darwin on his famous scientific voyage around the world. What attracts those called creationists nowadays is FitzRoy's account after Darwin published his seminal theory that “the Admiral had seemed at first unsure of the truth of Genesis and felt in fact responsible for giving Darwin a copy of Lyell's book Principles of Geology to read on the long voyage, a decision he later bitterly regretted.” (Source: the net.) So, is poor Robert Fitzroy to blame?

And, of course, it did not fail to help matters conveniently with the detractors of evolution that Admiral Fitzroy referred to Revelation 13 likening Darwin's theory to the "beast rising up out of the sea . . . opening his mouth in blasphemy against God.” This Bible-quoting repentance has been enough to give the Admiral credible prominence in front of the eyes of some creationists who seem to relish the thought that somehow this later position gives him the same stature that the father of evolution enjoys, although not good enough to replace his face in the British ten pound bill I am afraid; an honor that was earlier conferred when Darwin died and became one of only five 19th-century United Kingdom non-royal personages to be honored by a state funeral and  buried in Westminster Abbey close to Isaac Newton. I have seen the graves.

This past month of November in 1859 (the 24^th to be exact,) yes 150 years ago, Charles Darwin published his famous and controversial “Origin of the Species,” a different November book that became the source of all this anxiety. It is an understatement to say that the world has not been the same since. And it is also necessary to say that he was not the only one involved in the research that eventually culminated with the theory of evolution that is accredited mostly to him. I have heard some folks say that there is not an idea as powerful as one whose time has come and the evolution train was certainly on time when it arrived. As a matter of fact, Darwin hurried to publish his thoughts because he was afraid that Alfred Russell Wallace, another researcher who had sent him an essay describing the same idea, might come out earlier than him.

Unfortunately, part of the reluctance by many folks to accept Darwin’s ideas about the slow process of the evolution of the species is precisely the length of time it takes for life to evolve. In a human “written record” that goes back only a few thousand years it is very hard to conceive processes that take millions of years to evolve. It does not help either that most of those beliefs who doubt have been in existence a few thousand years only and consideration of the long evolution cycles do not fit in such short time span since our idea of self connected with religious beliefs evolved.  If a space traveler had landed on earth a mere ten thousand years ago that alien might have jumped to the conclusion that the human race lacked codified moral principles and would have left disappointed. Hey, perhaps one did!

In an article I wrote in September of 2005 about my own DNA entitled “D.A. Montesino: A planet of immigrants. Or: Where do I come from, really?” I wrote the story about the genetically confirmed common ancestry I share with every other living male on this planet. It seems that this man, black by the way, lived in East Africa approximately 77,000 years ago. We know that is our common branch, but we are not aware of the branch or trunk where he came from because his ancestors are unknown.  This means that every recorded notion or concept we have about life is about one tenth as long as the biological line we know we have traveled for sure. Is it any wonder then that we cannot spot the source of our biological makeup? Non-believers in evolution want to see human fossil traces going back million of years in order to be convinced, but animal remains don’t last long.

If you ever want to get a real sense of what eternity is all about I suggest you travel to Arizona and stand by one of the ridges of the Grand Canyon. Etched in a plaque placed near the edge of the north ridge there is a brief mention about the longevity of the canyon: five to six million years old. But wait, don’t go yet please and read this: “The Grand Canyon began to open at least 17 million years ago — older than previously believed-- report researchers writing in the journal Science. Using uranium-lead isotope dating to determine the age of carbonate deposits that form in the canyon's caves, Victor Polyak and colleagues found that the "canyon is oldest on its western end and opened up steadily to the east through head ward erosion". They estimate that the canyon was completely cut through 5 to 6 million years ago — the age previously cited for when the canyon began to form.” (Source: Mongabay.com) Shall we presume that those rocks stood by silently there while no life existed or evolved around them during that time?

It gives you a certain sense of smallness to be standing on top of a rock that has stood time for so long: Infinity makes us feel infinitesimal. Religious traditions speak to us of an eternal God or goddesses and I suppose that is OK.  It is not my job or goal to disprove any religious tradition; that goes against my own principles. Biological knowledge, on the other hand, speaks to us of an eternal universe that neither loses nor gains energy; it remains the same. What Charles Darwin accomplished with the “Origin of the Species” we celebrated this November was to open our window to that biological world so we can understand better who we are and how we got here objectively, without subjective shame or embarrassment that benefits no one.

Who knows? Perhaps we can figure out some day where we come from and be able to create a world where we all live better, longer and more peaceful and healthful lives and do not feel obligated to nurture foolish anecdotal political opinions simply because we want to impress those who feed foolishly from them and not from the real world that surrounds us so magnificently.

And that is my point of view today.