I’m continuing to read Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, which, by the way, is everything but brief at 496 pages. I’m currently at page 180 though, so making steady progress. Yuval Noah Harari, the author, continues to present interesting ideas and narratives.
One interesting thing that is examined is the belief that humans are special. According to Christianity, God created us in his own image, and explicitly created the world for us, imbuing humans and only humans with an eternal soul and promises of an afterlife in either Heaven or Hell. Science, however, has a beef to pick with this line of thinking and sent their champion Charles Darwin and Evolution to have a word. After all, if humans have evolved from animals (arguably with more or less success), and our ancients weren’t all that much different from chimpanzees today, then at which point exactly would have acquired something like a soul?
From the section titled “Who’s Afraid of Charles Darwin?” (page 119):
According to a 2012 Gallup survey, only 15 per cent of Americans think that Homo sapiens evolved through natural selection alone, free of all divine intervention; 32 per cent maintain that humans may have evolved from earlier life forms in a process lasting millions of years, but God orchestrated this entire show; 46 per cent believe that God created humans in their current form sometime during the last 10,000 years, just as the Bible says. Spending three years in college has absolutely no impact on these views. […] Even among holders of MA and PhD degrees, 25 per cent believe the Bible, whereas only 29 per cent credit natural selection alone with the creation of our species.
Though schools evidently do a very poor job teaching evolution, religious zealots still insist that it should not be taught at all. Alternatively, they demand that children must also be taught the theory of intelligent design, according to which all organisms were created by the design of some higher intelligence (aka God). “Teach them both theories,' say the zealots, ‘and let the kids decide for themselves.”
Oh dear, those numbers are distressing: I was aware that creationism was a thing in the USA, but not that it was this bad. Though I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, given some attitudes towards climate change or abortion. Yikes. Anyway:
Why does the theory of evolution provoke such objections, whereas nobody seems to care about the theory of relativity or quantum mechanics? How come politicians don’t ask that kids be exposed to alternative theories about matter, energy, space and time? After all, Darwin’s ideas seem at first sight far less threatening than the monstrosities of Einstein and Werner Heisenberg.
The theory of evolution rests on the principle of the survival of the fittest, which is a clear and simple idea. In contrast, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics argue that you can twist time and space, that something can appear out of nothing, and that a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time. This makes a mockery of our common sense, yet nobody seeks to protect innocent schoolchildren from these scandalous ideas. Why?
The theory of relativity makes nobody angry, because it doesn’t contradict any of our cherished beliefs. Most people don’t care an iota whether space and time are absolute or relative. If you think it is possible to bend space and time, well, be my guest. Go ahead and bend them. What do I care? In contrast, Darwin has deprived us of our souls. If you really understand the theory of evolution, you understand that there is no soul.
Awkward.