Stability

Evolution is real. We have made sense of fossil records, understood how DNA makes it possible, experimented on fruit flies. I do not need to assume a god is responsible for design any more than I need believe that a god made possible my phone call to the plumber because some being had to design and decree the rules of electricity .

It’s troubling that we continue to believe in the wisdom of the ancients (a mere couple of centuries ago) when they were clueless about modern cosmology, biology, ecology, and physics. They were quite ignorant folks, making up rules to fit each fantasy of why the world is as it is .

I’m guilty of some of the same. I try to understand evolution, but I have trouble with time. I often can’t remember what happened last week but I calmly say life changes to fit changing conditions over incomprehensible eras . I think modern humans have ”only” been around for a few hundred thousand years, the dinosaurs were wiped out “only” 85 million years ago, life on Earth began “only” 1 billion years after the sphere settled down. It all seems tidy, rapid, comprehensible. 

But the key for life is how it is formulated in stability. DNA is an almost insanely complex mechanism to keep things the same. Environments tend to last a long time. Life adapts – slowly – within stable limits. Breathless news may report rapid mutations in viral diseases. Yet for all that – the end result is still a virus, doing almost exactly the same thing. Giant leaps in morphology are probably mythical .

This essay is composed as biologic support for my contention that most of us crave some security. Naturally.