I’m Beginning to Agree with Darwin

Uh-oh, is it possible that a writer at this Jewish website would actually agree with the theory of evolution?

Let’s see.

Darwin states in his “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” which, interestingly enough never addresses the crucial question of the origin of life itself, that life began on Earth as single celled organisms that eventually evolved into the higher forms of life that we see today.

According to Darwin, there is an evolutionary chain from algae to fish to birds to reptiles to cold and warm blooded animals and finally to mankind. He describes the progression in much the same sequence that the Author of Genesis wrote thousands of years earlier.

But Darwin left out ONE, VERY important consideration.

The probability that any of this could have happened by accident is against astronomically calculated odds. Scientists, biologists, geneticists, agnostics and atheists all admit that even the simplest of human cells is far more complex than any invention that mankind could ever conceive of, let alone duplicate. There had to be another factor leading up to the arrival of man.

So here, I can’t say that Darwin and I agree.

But consider the second part of his title, dubbed “The Survival of the Fittest”.

Along the chain leading to the eventual development of all of the “beings” we see in existence today, there were predecessors that were less than complete. Skunks without smell, birds without feathers, cats without claws and rabbits without reproductive systems.

Only those that were fit survived. The rest fell by the wayside.

Here’s where I think Darwin makes a little sense. Heaven forbid, not from the evolutionary standpoint, but from a view of human history.

When we look back on the last six thousand years of recorded history, we see many societies that appeared to be “fit” but were actually less than that. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Huns, Ottomans, Nazis, Communists and Socialists all rose to power expecting to be around forever.  But look around, they have also fallen by the wayside.

There is only one nation that has seen them all, lived amongst them all, survived them all and continues to this day.

That is - the Jewish people.

Perhaps that’s because what we stand for, what we believe in and what we actively practice is the fittest of all ideals.

Yup, in this regard, I’m beginning to agree with Darwin. Only the fittest survive.