Sunday, 15 December 2024

On Nature



Beautiful Bird, You Have Escaped the Eternal Struggle. No More Pain. Rest Easy, My Little Friend  

Several months ago, I wrote about an enterprising pair of blackbirds who had wisely decided to build a nest upon my outside water heater unit. I documented the progress of the hatchlings. At the time, it was early spring, and hence, a precarious time of year to raise a brood. Nonetheless, atop a water heater was the optimum choice for survival. After raising a successful brood, the parental birds left the nest to do stuff that blackbirds do. The sequel: I noticed that our god-favoured birds (perhaps Demon favoured; the distinction blurs/merges) had returned a few weeks ago to take a chance at a second brood. As a professional biologist, I took an interest in the proceedings and noted five eggs within the nest. Of the five, only three made it to the hatchling stage. Two down and three to go. I took an emotional interest in the brood and kept a weathered eye on 'my chicks'. A day later, I noticed that there were only two offspring within the confines of the nest. I searched the immediate environs, but no sign of the errant chick could be found. I could only surmise that the missing chick had spread its wings and had become one with Nature. Or perhaps a pesky ferret had taken the chance to feed its hungry brood. Shagger, are you there? The remaining chicks were becoming vocal and waxing fat. Due to personal reasons, I was subject to a hiatus (not the extended abdominal wall variety), which caused a break in the continuity of my ornithological activity. Imagine my chagrin and displeasure when I returned to the nest to discover that a single chick, clearly bereft of corporeal existence, remained. Its life essence had departed, and the ever-waiting and inevitable agent of decay, entropy, was taking its toll/toil (see pic.). I carefully removed the nest and interred the bird with its bier unto eternal rest within the wildflowers flourishing within the confines of Flaxen Saxon Estate.  

Of the five eggs spawned, only two fledglings left the nest. Of course, there is no certainty that these birds survived. It is conceivable that one or both fell from the cosy confines and succumbed to a lurking predator. At best, 40% of the eggs survived as successful independent juveniles capable of flight. And this is only the beginning.

My observations and the stark sequence of events had got me pondering. Due to my biological training, I am well versed in natural selection's role in the great 'Dance of Life', or more prosaically, Evolution. In the wild, all organisms, great and small, plant or animal, are subject to natural selection's stark, cold hand. In the early stage of life, selection is at its most apparent, and generally, this is where the most potent selection pressure is manifest. In addition, the process is necessarily and inherently cruel for sentient organisms gifted with a sophisticated neural network. 

I state that 'Nature' is cruel. This could be construed as anthropomorphism, the application of human attributes to an inanimate concept. This is a common human trait often applied to the all-encompassing idea of Nature. In objective science, the urge should be avoided. That said, in matters relating to all other endeavours in life, it can add imagery, express emotions, allow pause for thought or confer poetic nuance. Digression over.

Evolution can only occur if the majority of organisms of a species die before reproduction. This is a given in any wild biological setting. As a mechanism of species change, evolution by natural selection, is, by its very character, ruthless, fundamentally brutish and mayhap, pointless. 

For those of a religious bent who invoke the mysterious, hidden creator of ALL, this poses a problem. As a mechanism, evolution through natural selection is rather profligate in execution. This method is not energy efficient. Why not make all living things ex nihilo and leave as is. Why is change part of the process anyway? But who am I, a mere man, a creature born in sin, questioning the ineffable God?  And what's the deal with parasites anyway? 

I wonder why, in his later years, Charles Darwin stopped going to church.  

       

More God Than Man, Possibly.......


underpinned   

5 comments:

  1. Dear Flax, I wonder that you wonder - about Mr Darwin, who understood. God is an invention of Pharao Echn Aton, so he is as fictional as Batman and not more responsible for creatures and creation as Gothham´s dark knight in the grotesque childish costume. But when it comes death, we use to be close to transcendental philosophy. Let´s hope that C. Ladd-Franklin is right with Solipsism and YOU are the creator. In that case all what has to be done is that you increase your creation-abilities. If that is wrong and there is such a horrible "outer" world, that gives a shit whether you are alive, dead or have never existed, we are all hopelessly lost and doomed to nothing with zero chance on any meaning. No matter how rich or famous or vip you think you are, to an infinite universe you are less than dust. Fortunately the chance is pretty high, that Mrs Franklin is right and you my dear creator better start to create better right now. Thank you!

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  2. Thanks for the endorsement Josh. You have confirmed what I have always suspected. Tis me and me only that exists and this shit pile of a universe is down to my sub-par creation skills. It's lonely being alone. I have no one to call on but my own disordered psyche, perhaps its no wonder that the world is like a half eaten kebab splattered on a cold wind besmirched kerb in Tipton. I must do better, but who do I turn to for help?

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    1. well Flax, you already did and do so - here we are at your blog for help, explanation, understanding, entertainment, fun...inception...
      By the way: You are never alone, you are on your own - that´s fckn sublime - rejoyce.
      By the way again: Thales, Parmenide, Plato, Ockham, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Ladd-Franklin, Husserl, Russell, Sartre, von Glasersfeld... a whole bunch of damn cool dudes is on your side. Giants ready to let you stand on their shoulders whenever you need some sight beyond horizon.

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    2. One book I would recommend, and I think you would find interesting (if you haven't read it already) is Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the spell" which I have just finished.

      It doesn't flog to death the usual (and millennia old!) arguments for and against the existence of a god, but - as the tagline has it - looks at religion as a natural phenomena

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    3. Dear Mark, hmh...Daniel Dennett. He may have lookes like Charles Darwin but was not the slightest bit as ingenius. He can be of some use to appoach philosophy for absolute beginners but should be left behind asap because naturalism leads to nothing, when you are looking for answers on essential questions - and that finally is the meaning and duty of philosophy. Therefore you definteley need transcendental thinking, what Dennett denies strictly. He is talking about the Cartesian Theater without any understanding of Descartes. Try Immanuel Kant, critics(analysis) of pure reason: "Up to now it had been assumed, that we must conform to objects, but all attepts to expand our knowledge by doing so have been futile under this assumption. Let us therefore try to see whether we do not make better progress by assuming that objects must conform to us."

      With Dennett´s primitive concept you can never unveil the phenomenology of spirit, mind, soul, concious, love, humor ....

      Better deal with David Hume, Ernst von Glasersfeld, the dudes of constructivism. Nothing watched without a watcher. Close your eyes and you´ll see! The watcher is you! As soon as that is understood, carry on thinking further... If you would not exsist, nothing would exsist.

      (don´t waste your precious ressource called lifetime with the monotheistic god of christians, muslims, jews, mormones, scientologists, same way loonies. That chap is as fictional as Mickey Mouse. In that case I´m with Dennett. Any kind of religion is superstition, all priests are nothing but shamans) Cheers

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