Several school boards have voted to put “alternative” theories as to the evolution of life on the school curriculum, followed by a storm of controversy and reverse decisions. A Federal judge has been asked to rule as to whether “alternative” theories of evolution should be placed on school curricula anywhere. A state governor has asked that a stone monument containing the Ten Commandments be placed in the State Capitol Building. Our national president has been “saved by Jesus” and believes that everything that he does is right. Pat Robertson states that Ariel Sharon had a stroke at the hand of God because he let the Palestinians have some of their land back that was taken away from them. Republican conservatives shoot down a Supreme Court nominee because she was not conservative enough for them. Christian church members agitate to have Christian prayer put in the school day. Ah yes, the religious right is on the move and flexing its muscles.
Asking that alternative theories of the evolution of life be taught to school children is a thinly veiled attempt to claim that that complex life is so complex, it had to have been formed by an intelligent creator who not only designed these complex creatures but did so purposefully, with a long range goal or goals in mind. This also means, by inference, that this Divine Creator is always manipulating life of all forms and will intercede in human events to cause favor or tragedy, according to his, her or its plan. The ruling of the Federal judge on this matter was pretty blunt. The judge said that everyone has a right to their own belief; but no one has the right to force their beliefs on everyone else. In particular, no one has the right to force their beliefs on others when there is not a shred of evidence to support those beliefs. All the evidence we have, in any form, indicates that all complex life formed by a process of natural selection, over long periods of time, aided by death, sex and natural variation. Once life began, whichever variation in sense, power, locomotion, reaction, efficiency that allowed an organism to better adapt to its environment and defend itself was selected. That organism survived to pass that physical attribute on to its children, while those organisms that did not have that variation died. Whichever organism was best adapted to that environment survived at the expense of others. There has been no intelligence about it. Evolution occurs entirely by chance. There is no intervention. There is no goal. There is no Wizard of oz behind a colored curtain pulling levers and manipulating human events.
As far as we know, this universe runs entirely on the Laws of Chance, Laws of Chaos, or Laws of Probability. Everything occurs randomly. There is no set plan or scheme, no grand design, no planned destiny. Random acts, however, do create patterns. Random water molecules acted upon by currents and winds form waves, ripples on the beach, erosion formations, patterns and structures. Random air and water molecules form winds, storms, rains, snows, hurricanes, as other forces act upon them. This all takes energy, which is left over in abundance from the original explosion (big bang). We don’t know what began that energy and this universe , but we do know that all patterns, forms, structures and reactions are what is left over from that beginning. They all happen following the Laws of Probability. There has been no interference with any of this natural evolution of forms and structures since the beginning. It is just what happens.
Of course, this means several things. It means for one that all events follow a bell-shaped curve. That means that there are ouliers on every bell curve. As humans, we suspect that we are at the extreme end of a curve of probability, Life in itself is not the norm in the universe that we know. We believe that there may be strange forms of life in weird patterns and bizarre circumstances in other solar systems. As far as our circumstance is concerned, it is unique. The best evidence we have right now is that our planet assumed its current form after colliding with a planet sized asteroid. Rather than both bodies exploding in debris, this other body became imbedded internally at great heat, forming a rotating hot core of iron. As a result, this rotating core forms a magnetic shield around our planet which protects us from the solar storm of the nuclear furnace which is 93 million miles away. Without that magnetic shield, our atmosphere and all possible surface life would be swept away by this radiation bombardment, much as it has been on Mars. We have a distance from our energy source which forms temperatures just right to support our form of life, and we have a rotation that is perfect to form seasons, crops and other life to support us. Just because the conditions on this planet are just right to support us does not mean that this planet was put here for us. It means we would not exist unless these conditions were here to form us as we are formed.
This also means that we are not going to survive forever. Stars evolve just as all other things in the universe evolve. Our star is going to someday run out of fuel, balloon, swallow up our planet, obliterate this solar system, then collapse. It will probably do this before it and our planet are swallowed up at the black hole in the center of our galaxy, or our galaxy collides with another galaxy creating myriad explosions, births, deaths and galactical contortions. Whatever elements comprise our bodies, minds and souls will be scattered into deep space or transformed into substances without life or conscience. We are not going to live forever, our sun is not going to live forever, and our galaxy is not going to live forever.
It would be a mistake to look at this as a tragedy, leading us to be fatalistic about our lives and the lives of others. What is means is the exact opposite. It means that we do not allow ourselves to be led astray by religious mythology. We do not believe that there is a personal god who is on our side. We do not believe that we can commit evil acts on other humans because we are defending our personal god and prophet. We do not believe that some super power will save us or provide for us. We believe that bad things will happen to good people and good things will happen to bad people. We do not believe that we will live forever and do not believe that what we do here doesn’t matter as long as we can get to Heaven.
We do not find this degrading or depressing. We find it liberating. We know that we are in this with all other forms of life, and that we must find ways to exist with all other forms of life for us to survive. We know that we have to find love and compassion for all other humans everywhere regardless of origin, appearance, color, race or creed. It means we have deep respect for all other beliefs. It means we do not take stupid chances with the only God that matters, the Laws of Chance. It means we are deeply grateful for this one time chance we have to enjoy this beautiful life and leave it better for those who follow us. It means we protect our planet home with deep commitment. It means we treat all other life with deep reverence. Realization that we live in an unintelligently designed universe allows us to finally join in union with all other life and our universe.