Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sees this and knows reality's inherent meaninglessness. Humans create
myths, but they are groundless, adult “just so” stories to hide the
impersonal march of natural selection, which is ultimately indifferent to
anything.
“Science tells us that we are creatures of accident clinging to a ball of
mud hurling aimlessly through space. This is not a notion to warm hearts
or rouse multitudes.”
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This quote from Paul Ehrlich is an interesting
rephrasing of Wilson's noble myth of evolution that helps put one's finger
on the nub of the problem: if rational explanations such as quantum
physics and evolution are fully adequate explanations of our origins and
our reality, why do we continue to read, create, and reformulate myths?
Why have not
The Epic of Gilgamesh
,
Beowulf
, Exodus, Bhagavad Gita,
The Pilgrim's Progress
, and the American Dream all vanished? Why has
religion shown such a dramatic rebound following the breakup of the
Soviet Union? Why is there such resistance to any form of transcendence
in China?
It is facile simply to allege that this is clear and indisputable evidence
for the reality and truth of religion. Yet the counterclaim that scientific
explanations for the realities of birth, death, and tragedy suffice is equally
facile. In contrast, Ehrlich points to an interesting opening or way to
think about transcendence and freedom.
In his recent topic
Human Natures
, Ehrlich refers to a theory devel-
oped by Jared Diamond called the “great leap forward,” referring specif-
ically to the shift in toolmaking that occurred at the end of the age of
the Neanderthals. “The change to that Upper Paleolithic technology
which appeared first in the Middle East about 40,000-50,000 years
ago, was the start of the most rapid and radical cultural change ever
recorded in the hominid line. . . . It is a leap into new technologies, art,
and population growth—perhaps even into a new mode of speaking.”
What is interesting, according to Ehrlich, is that at a certain point
while brain size remained fairly constant, “cultural changes took
place at astonishing speeds with no significant change in the physical
appearance of people or in the characteristics of their brains that can
be divined from fossil skulls.” The question, then, is, “Did the physical
evolution of our ancestors' brains cause the Great Leap Forward—or
did only the 'software' of culture change, not the 'wetware' of brain
structure?”
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