Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Cousin Darwinius Welcome



Hello distant cousin. Distant, distant, distant cousin of creation.

Darwinius masillae was found in the year 124 A.D. (after Darwin – or more accurately after On the Origin of Species was published in the old style date 1859 C.E.)

Now that the levees are breached so to speak, now that the neo-con blinders from the Bush Cheney regime are no longer in effect in the New America, it is interesting to be allowed to see a new global world dawning in the fanfare of the finding of a new so-called missing link specimen. Anyway it is more interesting than seeing Jesus sitting on a dinosaur.

Missing link found?

I had mentioned in my article Cultural Christian Sensibility about how the world would one day see everything and or date things in a secular light as in before or after Darwin. I redefine this general idea in that Darwin was not divine, his ideas were close to being that in terms of how the world scientific and secular cultures have evolved since the publication of the idea – day zero in our brave new secular world.

There is nothing to stop you from reading your bible in America. It is however no longer the only book on the shelf in the library. So much of what I would call ignorance in the American history has to do with gaps. As an example, it was a lack of books in upstate New York in pre civil war America that gave rise to writing your own book down and of prophecy no less of new religions and beliefs – a form of deconstruction and reconstruction of Christianity as found in the Book of Mormon.

On the Origin of the Species is a deconstruction and reconstruction of accumulated human knowledge and the use of that knowledge in some way to trace the face of God and feel the thread of creation through all things – living and dead. The theory of evolution is not evil. Man, the creation of God, is not intrinsically evil. A work of man, a book about the concept of evolution, is only as good or as evil as what man does with it.

I was amused to find out that Darwin was born on the very same day as our secular saint Abraham Lincoln. I am also amazed that On the Origin of the Species was published on the eve of the American Civil War when an obsolete economic idea like slavery was such a current consuming important thing in this part of the globe and far away from Victorian and Albertian London. It takes time for all good or reasonable ideas to take hold and change the world.

Many things, many efforts, many ideas and institutions have taken hold in the sixty odd years since World War Two – the United Nations, the International Court of Justice etc. – the foundation stones of the future are moving into place. We are capable of great and wonderous things and, the collective we, the secular and or Christian we, are also still capable of total destruction.

Getting back on track. The reason I mentioned our friend Darwinius Masaillae is because it was imprinted, artistically embedded into the Google Logo today. How many hits does the secular Darwinius get today? A billion? Well we are talking about American Google. I do not know the limitations of Google in other political or religious geographical settings where they will not see Darwinius – today – but he, she, it – our presumed ancestor is now part of the Global Commonality of Thought, the virtual planetary library of human knowledge.

Big words. Big thoughts. Have a nice day.