Late Morning Thoughts: December 8, 2017

I remember reading about evolution for the first time when I was about eleven. Sounded interesting. Made sense. I mentioned it to a fundamentalist acquaintance who spent the next hour describing a burning and eternal fire to which a loving deity sent people who believed in science. We only broke off our discussion when we had to go watch a film about kids who lived in iron lung because they had polio.

About a week later, I was still pondering the concept as I was taking a shower. I dropped the wash rag and, without even thinking, I clutched it with my toes and retrieved it. At that instant, I knew it was absolutely true, this science stuff.

Years later, I decided I didn’t know enough about the subject to allow me not to suffer fools lightly. I began to study the subject in earnest. I’ve probably read nearly 50 books on the topic and I’m still fascinated. Would recommend, as a starter, the late Stephan J. Gould’s All about Darwin. Then follow up with Origin of the Species. It’s fairly easy going.

Some specific facts amaze me from all the reading I’ve done. One: the early embryos of an alarming number of species are amazingly similar. Two: many species take the same number of breaths during their life. Three: We humans all start out as females in the earliest embryonic stages. The unlucky ones experience some folds and turns and end up as a an inferior model. The way things work is that genetic malfunctions like that offer some advantage, through modification, to the expansion of the species, so here we are. Four: males are inferior creatures who have to rely on size and finery to attract females. Five: Intelligence appears to derive from the size of the brain relative to body size, resulting a head too large for delivery at what would be full birth maturity, resulting in an extended gestation stage outside the womb.

These are all from Gould’s writings, so if I’m wrong, I learned it from him. I still trust him more than any TV evangelist I’ve ever heard.

Oh, one final fact, since the publication of “Origins” in 1859, practically every scientific discovery has supported Darwin’s theory of descent through modification. (He never actually used the term “evolution.” It came about later). There may have been no more prescient book ever written.

Just thinking, and wondering why we would elect a person to political office that would deny science but use antibiotics when facing a serious illness. Scary. Oh hell no. It's beyond scary.