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Human Being and Evolution

Humans live in a momentary present that is an elusive nothing between a past that no longer is and a future which does not yet exist. We are also dichotomous as individuals who live within a social collective upon which we depend. Each of us experiences a sense of self-determination and imaginative reflection as if untouched by what is beyond our thoughts. But we also feel ourselves to be objects pressed upon and hemmed-in by the things around us. Finally, and perhaps definitively, we all know that we are going to die. These observations about our situation all illustrate the same point: that we are dualistic beings, animals with physical, mortal bodies that can act like earthly gods with global power (real or imagined) and the ability to envision existence far beyond a simpler primate reality.

As animals we have a natural history of evolution that can ultimately be traced back to the Big Bang. Our immediate biological heritage has formed the shape and abilities of our bodies and our instincts, one of the most pressing and original being self-preservation because we are always vulnerable to disease, injury and death. Social groups make these dangers less likely by organizing our physical interactions. Such relationships are informed by our instincts and our sense of self within a culture. In living together we develop and sustain forms of culture which allow the continuity of our species, geographic social histories, individual contributions and genes. Humans are typically concerned with cultural and personal continuity, including continuity beyond death. Only recently have people become concerned with the survival of the species as a whole (reflected in the minutiae of genetic research) as only until modern times have we had a global and microscopic awareness of human beings. Today, modern cultures are more aware of our vulnerabilities as a species, whether from congenital disease, poor diet, dysfunctional relationships and habitations and ideologies, pollution, and earthly or cosmic natural disaster.

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