2 posts tagged “evolution”

I watched the 2007 remake of The Invasion the other night. As a remake of the 1956 and 1978 Invasion of the body snatcher films, I thought it was ok. Nothing spectacular. One scene I particularly enjoyed was the following conversation between a Russian ambassador and a Washington psychiatrist that addressed the human problem. It made me think about the recently uncovered evil of Austria's Joseph Fritzl this week.

Yorish: I say that civilization is an illusion, a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals, driven by primal instincts. As a psychiatrist, you must know this to be true.
Carol: To be honest, ambassador, when someone starts talking to me about the truth, what I hear is what they're telling me about themselves more than what they're saying about the world.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Quite right, well done, doctor.
Yorish: Perhaps this is true, perhaps being a Russian in this country is a kind of pathology. So what do you think, can you help me? Can you give me a pill? To make me see the world the way you Americans see the world. Can a pill help me understand Iraq, or Dafur, or even New Orleans?
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Don't be drawn in by his madness, doctor. He is Russian, he needs to argue like he needs to breathe.
Yorish: All I am saying is that civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. To imagine a world where this was not so, where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. Well, this is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human.
Carol: While I'll give you that we still retain some basic animal instincts, you have to admit we're not the same animal we were a few thousand years ago.
Yorish: True.
Carol: Read Piaget, Kohlberg or Maslow, Graves, Wilber, and you'll see that we're still evolving. Our consciousness is changing. Five hundred years ago, postmodern feminists didn't exist yet one sits right beside you today. And while that fact may not undo all of the terrible things that have been done in this world, at least it gives me reason to believe that one day, things may be different.
Yorish: Thank you, doctor.
Carol: You're welcome, ambassador.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Excellent.

We all ask the big 'why?' when acts of evil occur. Its the human problem. How could someone lock their daughter up for 24 years? What makes someone do such? How could they?

At least we all have the ability to react to such crimes and violence in humanity with disgust. We can all have the hope that one day as Carol says in The Invasion that 'things may be different'. That we will finally grow up and stop hurting each other. Maybe then we can finally progress.

One of my favourite shows on TV is heroes, of which I have been watching alot of recently. The idea that as humans we have not reached our true potential makes the show fun and entertaining to watch. I think we all at some point dream that we can fly or do something supernatural beyond our ability. I particulary like the monologue at the beginning of the show:

Where does it come from?
This quest?
This need to solve life's mysteries from the simplest of questions can never be answered.
Why are we here?
What is a soul?
Why do we dream?
Perhaps we are better of not looking at all.
Not delving, not yearning.
If that's not human nature, not the human heart.
that is not why we are here.
yet still we struggle to make a difference.
to change the world
to dream of hope.
never knowing for certain who we meet along the way.
who among the world of strangers will hold our hand
touch our hearts.
and share the pain of trying.

As a Christian I believe that God has a body waiting for me that supersedes this current one, a resurrected body that is perfected from the imperfections of the one I now live in. Its an amazing thought! We could call it the next real 'evolutionary step' in humanity.

In Randy Alcorn's Heaven he comments that although we do not know the glorious plans God has for our bodies, we do know that we will have a body like Christ's and who knows, we may have the ability to dive like a Whale or fly like an Eagle. Maybe transecending the laws of physics will be a possibility, we may reach out into God's universe while all the time exercising dominion with Christ.

Brilliant book by Alcorn by the way, I recommend it.