Evolution, the central concept in the study of life, is as certain any human knowledge. Many people of faith can integrate evolution into their religious world view, for example see evangelist minister Michael Dowd’s “Thank God for Evolution!”, or the writings of Roman Catholic theologian John F. Haught, or those of Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project and evangelical Christian. However many people of faith can not. But the “politically correct cultural elite” is every bit as creationist as fundamentalists when it suits their dogmas.
My doctoral dissertation was on evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology is controversial and denied by many of the leading intellectuals. It has been at times violently denied (see Harvard professor’s Edward O. Wilson’s autobiography for the doings at Harvard)). Despite overwhelming evidence, it violates the teachings of a religion- the Marxist church of unbridled social engineering.
The cherished dogmas of the politically correct Marxist elite that dominates American intellectual and political life are based on a pre-Darwinian world view as much as those of fundamentalists. Political correctness has long made a mockery of history and sociology. Sciences however really on the rule “show me the evidence”, and thus are a little more immune to dogma, but apparently not immune enough. After all NASA, the very symbol of scientific achievement when I was a child, is today a Islamic self-esteem organization.
Marxist ideas have trickled into evolutionary theory to muddle its concepts. As stated by Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin “ There is nothing in Marx, Lenin or Mao that is or can be in contradiction with a particular set of phenomena in the objective world.” Contrary to ideas that have seeped in from group identity politics, evolution does not select for the group or the species, but for the genes nestled in an individual. Those genes either are able to make copies of themselves and those copies are able to make copies, or they disappear. Everything is built bottom-up. Individuals are only temporary containers for genes and “species” convenient labels for related individuals at a given point in time.
Evolution is the free enterprise system operating in nature. The Darwinian algorithm of individual entities replicating with variability and selective survival was able to produce the complex majesty of nature, in the same manner the free enterprise system, with many individuals making small free choices, was able to produce all economic value. Neither nature nor the free enterprise system produce perfection, but both produce value. It should be noted that discredited “Social Darwinists” actually advocated a central authority manipulating society in the same manner collectivist dictatorships like China, North Korea or Cuba do today, rather than valuing nature’s “free enterprise”.
"Species” are temporary points in the life history of groups of genes banded together for common reproductive success. Species are transitory and semi-arbitrary labels that are useful in describing the evolving diversity of life at a given moment, a given split second in eons of time, and no more. All species are in constant change. This may not be apparent, but only because human lifespans are so incredibly short. From the perspective of a being with a lifespan of a second the weather is unchanging too, and from the perspective of a being with a lifespan in the billions of years, life is a kaleidoscope.
There is nothing “special” about the species that exist today It is only humanity’s brief existence, which gives the illusion that all “species” can be protected and “frozen” in place. Attempts to preserve every species alive today is literally the attempt to stop evolution. Certainly protect especially interesting endangered species, such as great white whales, just as extremely historical buildings should receive landmark status. But realize its being done for our own amusement, and at a cost. In New York City, the landmarking of buildings is tremendously overused, protecting buildings of dubious worth and impeding progress.
Radical conservation is in effect the notion that every rock, every grain of sand, every leaf must remain in the same exact state it was in on October 3, 2010, 15:22:18 hours EST, and we are willing to stop progress, waste billions, and cause human suffering to make sure. Of course in the long run the goal of radical conservationism can not succeed, and is just another costly left-wing dogma in their on going campaign to end the free market system, and so end all freedom.
The law of evolution is constant change. All species will go on changing and dividing into untold new species. Impeding progress and causing human misery in the misguided attempt to protect some insignificant species is madness.
There are now scientific positions taken by the media and the intellectual and political establishment such as radical conservationism, man made global warming, gender as a social convention that have been selected for to serve Jihadism. Whether a given proponent of man made global warming realizes it or not is irrelevant, genes do not realize what they have been selected for either. Such is the Darwinian algorithm’s bottom-up production of organized complexity.
The flotilla supporting left-wing accepts that snails evolved, but their science is that the human brain miraculously sprang into being in perfect configuration to serve Marxism. And that like imaginary man-made climate change, the reality of evolution should be stopped in the name of protecting “fixed” species.
Owls are hardly endangered. There are over 200 living species. Some of you might recall the controversy surrounding the infamous spotted owl. There are three subspecies of spotted owls which are only minimally different than the 4 subspecies of barred owl, with whom they can successfully mate and produce viable offspring. They could very well have been considered seven subspecies. The subspecies of spotted owls are in decline because barred owls are more successful in direct competition, with some interbreeding going on. In the long run new subspecies are forming- that is evolution in action, Nevertheless it has been mandated that 13,500 square miles (twice the size of New Jersey or Israel) are off limits to protect spotted owls!
George Will noted in his February 8, 2009 Washington Post article “How Congress Trumps Darwin”, that the Endangered Species Act passed by Congress in 1973, makes it law to protect species threatened by disease, predation, threats to habitat and other natural factors. Will quoted columnist Edwin Yoder who compared this law to Tennessee's "monkey law" that lead to the Scopes trial, “Tennessee's ambitions were comparatively modest. It sought only to conceal the disturbing evidence of natural selection from impressionable school children. The Congress of the United States, one is intrigued to learn, intends to stop the nasty business in its tracks."
