On Free Will and Evolution
This was sparked by the recent debate about creationism vs. evolution, which I find is a bit of a silly debate to begin with. I mean I have no problem with other people's religions, but your religion is not the end-all be-all nor is it belonging in a science class. If it is a religious school, go ahead and teach that. Whatever, that is your call, but I don't think people of every religion should have to learn what your religion says.
Then I hear some questions from people, I see the comments and suddenly thoughts are sparked in my mind. I won't say I am without religion myself, but my own religious beliefs do not preclude science nor are they exactly simply summed up with "I believe in this" since I am afraid that I have taken from so many different ones to create mine that it becomes a bit of a challenge to recreate the exact tenants without boring people. But religion and science are copacetic, in fact much of my philosophy is taken from stoic philosophy which says that I must be logical above all else. I don't see gods and science as being unable to go together.
People say things like, do you really think all of this was by chance? And to that I say yes. Even though I sometimes feel that there is a poetry to life, a kind of weird divine grace even in the most painful of times, I am fully aware that this might just be my human instinct to try and make order and beauty where there was none intended. Chaos and disorder, just throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, is often the way of evolution and life in general. But rather than disheartening me at the prospect of no god directly molding this planet and my life exactly as they intended it it actually seems rather beautiful to me.
Why? Because that means all the wonderful things in this world are only because of us. We create the art, we create the poetry, we create the meaning. No one controls us, no one tells us what to do, we just saw that it would be a good addition and did it. We brought order to chaos, poetry to disorder. It is free will at our finest. If we are to give humans credit for the evils, all the murders and rapes, all the burnings at the stake, why can we not give them an equal credit in art and beauty? To me it only adds to the human condition to be able to say that nothing created us, that we created ourselves. We may never have the answer, but I don't know why the prospect of not being pre-destined to do everything is so frightening. To me, it is absolutely exciting if that is the option that happens to be true, for that still would make us the child of star dust and explosions. We are the product of billions of years and astounding odds. That is beautiful to me.
Then I hear some questions from people, I see the comments and suddenly thoughts are sparked in my mind. I won't say I am without religion myself, but my own religious beliefs do not preclude science nor are they exactly simply summed up with "I believe in this" since I am afraid that I have taken from so many different ones to create mine that it becomes a bit of a challenge to recreate the exact tenants without boring people. But religion and science are copacetic, in fact much of my philosophy is taken from stoic philosophy which says that I must be logical above all else. I don't see gods and science as being unable to go together.
People say things like, do you really think all of this was by chance? And to that I say yes. Even though I sometimes feel that there is a poetry to life, a kind of weird divine grace even in the most painful of times, I am fully aware that this might just be my human instinct to try and make order and beauty where there was none intended. Chaos and disorder, just throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, is often the way of evolution and life in general. But rather than disheartening me at the prospect of no god directly molding this planet and my life exactly as they intended it it actually seems rather beautiful to me.
Why? Because that means all the wonderful things in this world are only because of us. We create the art, we create the poetry, we create the meaning. No one controls us, no one tells us what to do, we just saw that it would be a good addition and did it. We brought order to chaos, poetry to disorder. It is free will at our finest. If we are to give humans credit for the evils, all the murders and rapes, all the burnings at the stake, why can we not give them an equal credit in art and beauty? To me it only adds to the human condition to be able to say that nothing created us, that we created ourselves. We may never have the answer, but I don't know why the prospect of not being pre-destined to do everything is so frightening. To me, it is absolutely exciting if that is the option that happens to be true, for that still would make us the child of star dust and explosions. We are the product of billions of years and astounding odds. That is beautiful to me.