Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Natural (and Unnatural) Selection
Talking 'bout some evolution. Catherine Newman and her kids do it so well.
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4 comments:
I just wanted to say that I SO enjoyed reading this! What a wonderful way to engage your children in biology - I'm going to remember this when my daughter's old enough to understand (she's only 2). But more than that, I broke into an ear-to-ear grin upon reading the last sentence: "We may be programmed to desire that our offspring live to reproduce themselves—but it just feels like love." Thanks for the wonderful essay!
I really enjoyed reading about another family that values critical thinking skills. Sometimes I feel like an oddity as my husband and I and strive to instill both a sense of wonder and healthy skepticism into our children. And I love getting a dose of science in my Brain, Child. Thanks for the essay!
What a refreshing article! I hope I'm able to raise my son to be so thoughtful & inquisitive. Catherine's writing is so dynamic - I love to read it because it's interesting and feeds my need for intellectual or thought-provoking writing, but there's also always a little (or big!)parenting nugget in there.
Holy Necrophilia is right, Batman. After I finished reading this article I said to myself, out loud, "Whoa! That's powerful." Initially in reference to what Ben said, and then to the brilliance of the article leading up to such a thought-provoking climactic ending.
I've been mulling over this "evolution"/"survival of the fittest" topic for some time now. It seems that these concepts have become presuppositions to many many many scientific/technological advances/theories and understandings. The concepts may be largely understood or taken out of their original context or perhaps have evolved to cultural and psychological applications more than Darwin had intended. Or perhaps Darwin was really good at marketing his research and science and thus it has been accepted for generations as undeniable truth. But Ben's comment brings up a wonderful springboard for discussion. Given that Darwin's theories are taken for granted as truth, it seems to me that we have spent millions of dollars, millions of jigawatts of mental energy, and millions of hours of time avoiding/prolonging the inevitable: living things die. Living things are born to die. Living things grow and then die. These are real true life truths. And we know them for a fact. Yet, we spend countless dollars, time and mental energy trying to prolong the inevitable. So much so that maybe we've interfered with Natural Selection. Or maybe we've just stirred up and spiced up the Natural Selection pot. Who knows...but I think Ben is onto something...and onto something big. I'm holding onto that thought for a while.
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