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The animal kingdom is so diverse and imaginative. Some species are so bizarre, they would appear out of a science-fiction novel. And they are so varied; they swim, fly, walk, run, everything. Their chemical make-up makes them so, does it not? There are vertebrates and invertrebrates, fish and seagulls. It is amazing to ponder that they were created from the same resources of a molten rock billions of years ago. Scourging Wikepedia, I found a quote by Maurice Maeterlinck: “"Something in the insect seems to be alien to the habits, morals, and psychology of this world, as if it had come from some other planet: more monstrous, more energetic, more insensate, more atrocious, more infernal than our own."
I journeyed into my backyard to take this video of a couple of ants, and saw how divergent they were from some species like, for example, us humans. There are over a million different species of insects, occurring all over the world.
Some animals just sit in trees all day, some hunt in forests, some form highly sensitive units. An ant can “accelerate from zero to 143 miles an hour in 0.13 milliseconds-2,300 times faster than the blink of an eye,” says Mark W. Moffett reporting for the National Geographic. Still, within them is a sense of duty and honor. For they dutifully serve those in charge, and when one is injured offer help. Scouts patrol the entrances, with some primitive predator-detecting technology. Sounds similar to humans, doesn’t it? Maybe millions of years ago, when they diverged, they contained some of the same genes still visible in the higher forms of life salvaged today. They maintain order (through fear?), and security units (ineffective?), just as we do. A wonder it is to contemplate, the complexity of the creation surrounding us.
From the most glorious of sunrises to the most dense of forests, we live in a complex and compelling world. Throughout history, there have been many explanations for the phenomena surrounding the universe. Philosophy, religion, mythology, science, and thought have each done their part, and influenced many others down the line. Some figures have lead the march, some have failed, some have been overly dogmatic and zealots. But still, the human mind knows no bounds and has a complexity far surpassing our understanding. It gives us the discernment to know when to speak, it lets us learn about anatomies of tiny species recently discovered, it lets us recognize permutations of letters and produce eloquent sounds.
All this from nothing?
Now, perhaps that may have been an hyperbole, but from that permutation of words produced emotions in you, the reader. Something positive or negative, stimulating the brain. Would an ant, like the one in that video, recognize what I just said and refute my opinion? Does it even know what is being said? Nonsense, perhaps it uses its feelers to communicate with fellow workers, but it doesn’t distinguish lies from truth, or opinions. We as humans are perhaps the only species that can do so (you are the expert, is there any other that I should know about?).
We are infinitely complex. Some say designed from a Creator. Yet the issue remains; the fact that we can even engage in debate about our creation shows the wonders of the human brain. Perhaps that is my point, and nothing more. We must work together, to help form a brighter future for our world in which we reside. Regardless of opinions of the Evolution vs. Creation debate, we must work together. The debate only makes brighter the fact that we are infinitely intricate and multifarious. But we do share a common ancestry (albeit even if there were a couple separate ‘Eves’ as some scientists say, whether true or false).
“Shantih,” as T.S. Eliot once said; it lies within our grasp ready for us to partake.
