Daily Inspiration: Richard Dawkins Will Make You Feel Better (and Worse)
"The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. "
Richard Dawkins wrote this in “River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life” that according to Darwinism, life needs to be filled with suffering and a ruthless food-chain that if you think about for too long may induce some seriously blues. But he also goes on to sum up how Darwinism works across our human species beautifully, and if you think about it in terms of who sells artwork and who doesn’t, or who gets artwork published and who doesn’t, it works on that level too.
"If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
I especially like his summation, “In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.” If only we were taught this when we first started sketching in notebooks, perhaps it could save us (and all the other insects out there) a lot of heartache. Perhaps this is a sad Daily Inspiration, but hopefully a good-sad, or a contemplative-sad.
"Monster Food Chain" by Tuism
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