This closes one door, and opens up another for me.

It allows me to understand humanity better…but it allows me to reach even further in my own creation of reality. I feel oddly freer for having this new understanding. Does that make sense?

Thanks ER.

Sexual attraction and love of our children may be programmed into us by evolution, but that does NOT mean love for wife and family is any less a sublime and noble experience or any less a solemn obligation; they are even even more so because we choose to see them that way. A tropical sunrise at sea is not merely a meteorological phenomenon, and regardless of what Whitman tells us, the more astronomy you know, the more breathtaking the night sky is.

http://www.bartleby.com/142/180.html

Now what? That is where I am at.

Once you see that, you get the AHA! moment, and everything suddenly makes sense. This is why Darwinism took the world by storm, because it explains so much. It also explains why it has been so bitterly resisted. People would rather have their superstitions explain why things are the way they are than accept that it just turned out that way naturally. Nobody’s in charge, shit just happens.

But we are also thinking creatures. We can go against our natures, and we can alter our own destinies, especially if we understand the sources of our motivations, and those of our fellows. We need not be prisoners of evolution any more than we need be bullied by the laws of physics, or blindly accept the rules of some Bronze Age Diety. Sure, even if we accept the restrictions that nature places on us, there is still much we can do to control our own lives. We have power, even if we are not all-powerful. Once you understand your limitations, and accept them, you may find you still have much power to make things happen.

Read “The Naked Ape”, by Desmond Morris. I was lucky, it was assigned reading at school, so I learned from it when I was still young enough to profit from it. It was a very controversial book at the time, although it is pretty tame by today’s standards.

I have a friend who used to work at Busch Gardens. One day, the game keeper took her for a jeep ride through the animal park. He stopped at the edge of the moat around the Baboon Island. These apes are potentially dangerous, but are afraid of water, so they are isolated on an island for safety. “Watch this.”, he told her, and he walked up to the edge of the moat and adopted the baboon threat posture, standing up and lifting his arms above his head. Immediately, the alpha male repeated the posture, rushed to the edge of the moat and opened his mouth in a wide scream, displaying his 3″ canines.

My friend remarked there was no doubt that creature was ready to tear them apart, simply to display its dominance and protect its harem. And she realized at that moment how little actually separates us from our most remote ancestors.

Once my paradigm shifts, I can never go back. Not because I can’t, per se`…..because it no longer *works*. When things intrinsically fall into place, it becomes a truth for me. I will have lots of questions ER and I ask for patience. This is a game changer.

Wow.

On the other hand, every tribe needs its share of troublemakers, rabble-rousers and risk takers, natural leaders and street fighters, i.e., selfish apes.

So the most successful troops will, after a time, reach a balance, have just the right mix of rugged individualists and team players, and they will be more successful competing against other troops. In all human social groups, there is this tension between working together (there is no “I” in “team”) and individual excellence and competitiveness and aggression (try harder, never quit, never settle for second best, everybody loves a winner, develop your leadership potential).

Look at competitive social groups, such as gangs, military units, athletic teams, corporate offices. There is great emphasis on team effort, but there are struggles and rewards for the alpha male, too.

Nobody has gone to the trouble to set it up like this, its just the way its worked out. That’s what apes do.

My daughter? Oy Vay. A genius ruled by emotions.

I agree with this man..(who sounds rather like George Carlin)

I know this sounds ambiguous considering my spirituality. However, I create my own reality. So, therefore it is.

I don’t see any harm in creating our own version of how a higher power manifests.

But, nature would press on should we stop existing. That says everything. We try to justify our existence by being *useful*.

I try to keep on track with what I see needs to be done, because, well…we ARE here.

For example. Why do most people love kids? Because people who don’t like kids do their best to avoid having any, so they don’t pass their dislike of kids on to their own children. Its inevitable you will wind up with a population that, for the most part, loves children. Or think they do. Morality, or “human decency” (whatever that is) have nothing to do with it.

God doesn’t work in mysterious ways, he works in random, but statistically predictable ways, just like quantum physics. This is what Charles Darwin stumbled on over a century ago. That’s why he is so hated. We don’t like knowing that about ourselves.