[haiku]
You step in the stream, but the water has moved on.
I wanted Teddy to be here too, because she is never forgotten. She was my first Canine familiaris companian. She is always on my mind and always part of me as are the dozens of dogs who have been my best friends. They all own a piece of my heart.
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I hope you find some of what I have written on these pages interesting and perhaps some of it even a little bit apocryphal. What I promise you is I will always tell you the truth. These are my thoughts and the facts as I remember them. |
Even with very good theories, they are sometimes unsuccessful in some situations. This is an imperfect world and theories are never perfect even if most of the time they are right.
"For example, kin selection predicts that if males take over a group in which females are caring for infants, they might benefit from doing away with the infants and reimpregnating the females. This has been seen in lions, langur monkeys, and many other species. In other circumstances, however, males transferring into a group might not be able to take over, but instead have to sue for acceptance by the powers that be. In such instances these relatively weak newcomers might have to befriend females by being gentle and caring toward their infants, even though the infants have been sired by other males. This has been seen in baboons, among other species." -- from "What is Darwin's Truth?" (Darwin's Truth, Jefferson's Vision, The American Prospect - July 1, 1999 by Melvin Konner)
Some of our scientific theories make predictions which are the same predictions made by other theorists for different reasons.
"For instance, sociobiologists suggest that incest should have been selected against in evolution because it brings hidden genetic defects to the surface. But such other theorists as Westermarck, Freud, and Skinner give us reasons to expect incest avoidance. Even if sociobiology makes more sense in such cases, it doesn't exactly produce surprises." (ibid)
"Over the past 15 years systematic research on child abuse and pedicide by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson--research specifically motivated by neo-Darwinian theory--has shown that a child is between 10 and 100 times more likely to be assaulted or killed if he or she lives in a household that includes an unrelated male...." (ibid)
"There is something perversely comforting about the Daly and Wilson finding. Child abuse in the presence of unrelated males is an equal-opportunity scourge, crossing boundaries of class, race, and religion. Sadly, biological mothers as well as stepfathers are guilty of the abuse; it is the presence: of the unrelated male in the household that seems to count, whether or not he commits the abuse. Theory notwithstanding, this is a disturbing and puzzling phenomenon, but it is a human one. Or more precisely, it is a human extension of an animal phenomenon, and that perhaps disturbs us most of all." (ibid)
Humans are in reality not much different than salmon who swim against the current only to lay their eggs and die.
We (some of us) have more of the animal in us than we would like to admit. And for those so vainglorious as to believe humans are more evolved than non-human animals and humans have souls, whereas non-human animals do not; these assumptions represent typical human fallacies and the myths which conjure up gods to explain the inexplicable, the enigma of all time - that all we exist for is to survive to reproduce and then die - like those salmon.
There is no end to evolution nor is evolution a progression. Evolution is merely an adaptation for the benefit of reproduction. That may not be all life is, but that is the prime directive for life. The rest is the journey. Try to enjoy it.