SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST (E O M - 7)

MYTH PERCEPTION 2

(Ref. Book – Excerpts from Spontaneous Evolution, Authors: Bruce H. Lipton and Steve Bhaerman)

As repeatedly propagated by Swami Vijnananand, we have been mentioning in these blogs the role of mind and the importance and inevitability of mind's role for inclusion in the scope of science. Such opinions are echoed by a few scientists and thinkers in the 21^st century. Next few blogs to follow cover these topics.

In fact, the first paper on evolution was published by French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck in 1989, the year Darwin was born. And phrases that we have attributed to Darwinism-the laws of jungle and survival of the fittest-were also well-established before Charles Darwin’s birth.

Robert Malthus was an economic philosopher. Malthus championed a pessimistic position in regards to world affairs. He set out not only to prove that the glass was half empty but also it would soon be ¾ empty, then 7/8 empty and on and on. His 1798 essay on principle of population formed the theoretical basis of Darwin’s theory. The whole Malthusian notion that evolution is driven by a bloody and brutal battle for survival has actually has no scientific merit.

Charles Lyell was the most distinguished and influential scientist in the world at that time and for good reasons. His book ‘Principle of Geology’ published in 3 volumes in 1830-33, established the science of geology and, in doing so, undermined the church’s Biblical interpretation of creation. This book, which provided the basis to Darwin for his evolution theory, contained four chapters dedicated to the Lamarck’s theory. To Lyell, evolution of the biosphere was a perfect complement to the evolution of the physical planet. The views of Lyell and Lamarck had deep influence on Darwin’s theory which he has acknowledged when he published the second edition of his ‘Journal of Researches’ in 1845.

In June 1858, Alfred Russel Walace, an English naturalist, sent Darwin a copy of manuscript titled ‘On the Tendencies of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type’ along with a letter requesting that Darwin review the material and, if he found it of merit, pass it on to Lyell. This manuscript was Wallace’s theory of evolution. It was brief, elegant, academic, extremely well-written and would have qualified Wallace as the “founder of evolution theory”, a title now attributable to Darwin alone. Foreseeing this problem Darwin wrote to Lyell a letter dated June 26, 1858 – “it seems hard on me that I should be thus compelled to lose my priority of many years standing …” Lyell used his status so that Darwin the aristocrat, would get first billing and Wallace, the commoner, would receive the dubious honor of being listed as second contributor.

The Theory of Evolution-officially described as the Darwin-Wallace theory-was formally at the Linnean Society of London on July1, 1858. This incident has had profound reverberations (to reecho or resound) that continue to impact us today.

From our (commoners') perspective, Wallace recognized that evolution was driven by the elimination of the weakest, while Darwin interpreted the same data as to mean that evolution resulted from the will to survive inherent in the fittest.

The difference: In a Wallace world, we would improve in order not to be the weakest, but in a Darwinian world, we struggle to acquire the status of being the best. In other words, had Wallace prevailed, there would be less focus on competition and more on cooperation.

In his later years, Darwin moved away from Academic Darwinism. Rather than emphasizing survival and struggle, Darwin readdressed his attention to focus on the evolution of love, altruism, and the genetic roots of human kindness. In addition Darwin began to credit the Lamarckian concept of the environment as the driving force in evolution. Unfortunately, Darwin’s disciples thought his new ideas were tantamount to sedition, undermining all that Darwinism had come to stand for. Darwinist simply held on to their version of the theory and dismissed Darwin’s later ideas as the consequence of his creeping senility.

Darwin’s evolution theory had unprecedented impact in the journey of humanity. Later in a meeting debate held at Oxford University in June, 1860, the dominance of the church was over powered by Science with the acceptance of Darwin’s theory by both the science and public at large. The church was forced to relinquish the torch of knowledge and, with it, control of western civilization’s basal paradigm. The future went under the control of scientific materialism.

In his 1998 article in the prestigious journal ‘Nature’, British scientist Trimothy Lenthon provided important support to the ‘Gaia Hypothesis’ formulated by scientist James Lovelock. Lovelock suggested that Earth, itself is a living entity that uses evolution to regulate its own exceedingly complex metabolism. Lenton described how the Sun has warmed by 25% since life on earth began some 3.8 billions years ago, and, yet, the planet has somehow been able to regulate its climate and buffer that huge temperature differential. Lenton suggested that benefit the system as a whole tend to be reinforced, while those that alter or destabilize the environment in an unfavorable way are restrained.

Lenton concluded that “ If an organism acquires a mutation that causes it to behave in an ‘anti-Gaian’ manner, its spread will be restricted in that it will be at an evolutionary disadvantage. Lenton is suggesting that if we humans don’t find ways to evolve that are more harmonious to the planet, we may find ourselves homeless. Those organisms that best fit the environment by contributing and supporting global harmony get to thrive.

(Here we see Swami Vijnananand's comprehensive rational foresight when he has recommended harmony with the Universe i.e. journey of a human being in the direction of ENTROPY, i.e. SAMATA, which is also reflected in three principles (Trisutri), of YAJNYA).

Journey from single cell life to Human being:

How the trillions of single celled organisms were combined to become a human?

Initially, in the early stage of evolution, all the cells in colonial organisms were carried out the same functions. However there came a time when the number of cells that comprised an organism became so large that it was no longer advantageous for all cells to do the same thing. Then individual cells in the community took on specialized jobs to support the survival of the whole organism. This division of work is termed as ‘process of differentiation’ in Biology.

The formation of multi cellular organism was, in a sense, a quantum leap in the course of evolution on this planet. The evolution has advanced further and we might be tempted to think that human organism represents the fully tweaked (fine-tuned) evolutionary endpoint. But actually the human is at the beginning of next and higher level of evolution, the emergent multi-human super organism known as ‘Humanity’.

Perhaps the most important message offered by both quantum physics and field experiments is that everything is related. The new biological imperative for humankind necessarily involves the understanding that we are all in this world together and ‘survival of the fittest’ must now give way to ‘thrival of the fittingest’. That means we must adjust human activity to that which will cause entire system to thrive. Like the single-cell organism that utilizes environmental awareness in order to emerge into more complex and efficient organism, human society must adapt a new paradigm of social and economic relationship. This means maximum expression for the individual and maximum benefit for the whole. Only the seemingly impossible reconciliation of these misconceived opposites can create the emergent human that spiritual teachers tell us is our destiny.

Note: The human consciousness (mind energy) is a part of universal consciousness (field). The journey of the universal energy is to the state of entropy where the motion shall cease to exist. The human mind must also follow this path of entropy by the proper use of the FREE WILL. This would be the way of survival with the highest. This achievement would be possible through symbiosis. That would possibly be the highest stage of mind-evolution.

Vijay R. Joshi.