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THE GENIUS OF CHARLES DARWIN -- ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY & SCREENCAP GALLERY |
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but somehow wish they hadn't.
Darwinism can be unsettling, even frightening.
Darwin himself was shocked
by what he called the "low and horribly cruel behavior"
he observed in nature.
And yet it was integral to natural selection. One piece of research shook Darwin to his core. He knew how some insects, like this parasitic wasp, lay eggs in the larvae of other insects so that their young, when hatched, can feed on them. They also sting each part of the prey's nervous system so as to paralyze it, but not kill it, to keep the meat fresh. So the victim may be aware of being slowly eaten away from inside, but unable to move a muscle to do anything about it. How do we face this deeply disturbing truth? Duck under a security blanket of faith in God? But then, Darwin wondered, what kind of God would create an animal that could only exist in this horrible way. Isn't it better to embrace reality, bleak as it may sometimes be, than to avoid it and live a lie?
In the teeth of life's hardships,
Darwin was determined to live authentically.
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