Why did God allow humans to evolve?
Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote: “If the Football field were a timeline of the 14-billion year old Universe, with the Big Bang at one end, then at the other end, the width of a single blade of grass spans 30,000 years of human history, from Cro-Magnon to the present.”
Seen from this perspective we’ve barely begun to evolve. This gives me hope because it means we are merely babes. We mess things up and have terrible tantrums. We may yet get it right if we don’t destroy ourselves first.
A spark of divinity lies within us that makes us humans capable of compassion and grace, of loving peacefulness and magnanimity, forgiveness, tolerance, forbearance. It must be divinity that gives us these capabilities because Nature is not peaceful and we humans are of Nature; we are evolved from it. Anyone who’s watched nature documentaries knows that Nature is violent. Watching a cougar take down an antelope is horrifying, or witnessing an eland buck off a lion. Terrifying. That’s what we humans do on a larger scale. Russia. Ukraine. Criminal. Victim.
However, we are not animals. We don’t need to kill each other to survive. We can choose differently because we have options. We have that divine spark urging us to evolve into angelic beings.
How come elephants are vegetarians? Dolphins are not predators but seals prey on penguins. Lambs, sheep, goats, horses – these are not predatory animals. Raptors are predatory; robins are not. Certain human individuals are predatory as are certain nations. We organize ourselves into predatory armies. And yet some nations like Tibet have no armies.
Maybe there’s hope yet for this human experiment. It seems like all hell is breaking loose. Again. The Holocaust. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. The long history of subjugation of so many peoples. Are we getting worse or better? Our evolution is certainly uneven, but still, I have hope.
It’s the old Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah – two cities destroyed for their wickedness. Humans have always come back. Two steps forward, one step back. As long as we’re not taking one step forward, two steps back there is hope. I believe we’re in the one step back phase. Or is it two? Maybe we’ll hit bottom, then make a huge leap forward when all of a sudden we come to our senses and fall to our knees.
Who knows? Not me. But I can hope and pray and remain grateful for this Earth and Universe and all her gilded treasures. I look to my own spiritual evolution. That is all I can do. That is all any of us can do. Maybe collectively that’ll mean enough to make a difference and save ourselves.
I
have
hope.