Evolution is the creation-myth of our age. By telling us our origin it shapes our views of what we are. It influences not just our thought, but our feelings and actions too, in a way which goes far beyond its official function as a biological theory.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the profound impact of evolutionary theory on our understanding of humanity and its influence on our thoughts and actions.
Mary Midgley highlights the significance of evolution not just as a biological concept, but as a narrative that shapes our identity and worldview. By providing a sense of origin, it profoundly affects how we perceive ourselves and our relationships with others, ultimately influencing our emotions and behaviors in ways that extend beyond mere scientific explanation.
In practice
During a lecture on life sciences, this quote could underscore the philosophical implications of evolution.
When some portion of the biosphere is rather unpopular with the human race-a crocodile, a dandelion, a stony valley, a snowstorm, an odd-shaped flint-there are three sorts of human being who are particularly likely still to see point in it and befriend it. They are poets, scientists and children. Inside each of us, I suggest, representatives of all these groups can be found.
Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started.
As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life. But life has no meaning; it cannot have meaning because meaning is a formula; meaning is something that makes sense to the mind. Every time you make sense out of reality, you bump into something that destroys the sense you made . Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning.
The world's like a ride in a fairground & when you choose to go on it you think it's real, that's how powerful our minds are
Appraise war in terms of the fundamental factors. The first of these factors is moral influence.
Each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, since each of them is irreplaceable and once gone, can never be retrieved.
Dreaming is not merely an act of communication (or coded communication, if you like); it is also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination, a game that is a value in itself. Our dreams prove that to imagine--to dream about things that have not happened--is among mankind's deepest needs. Herein lies the danger. If dreams were not beautiful, they would be quickly forgotten.
It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands.
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