Evolutionary Truths

One of my all time favourite snippets from a book has to be the argument about existence of God, from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Context: The book has many hypothetical alien species, one of which is the babel fish. A Babel Fish when put in the ear automatically translates everything someone says in any language to a language you understand. Discussing about the existence of this amazing species, the author says:

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. 

The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." 

"But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED." 

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. 

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.”

The last line always cracks me up! 

I have a similar argument.

A calf starts walking moments after it is born. So does a puppy, a doe, chickens and almost every other species. They are young and need looking after, but they are not helpless. 

On the other hand, let's look at human babies. Our babies don't know about the existence of their hands till they are 2 months old. That's a milestone for which a doctor congratulates the parents - "Hey, your baby discovered he has hands. Good going! You are on track." They lie on their backs because they know no better till they are a few months old. They are so dependent on others for every need, including to just turn around.

The fact that we are born so helpless and yet evolve into the smartest creatures on the planet has 2 explanations:

• Either that we are not the smartest species. The other species are far ahead of us in terms of evolution. They have evolved to the point of being born ready to face the world, unlike us. They are faster, have shorter life spans and live better.
• Or that this was by design. We are made to take a longer, steeper learning curve, so that we eventually become the smart species we claim to be. It takes years of honing to get there.

If it is the first case, that we are not the smartest species - it's not a surprise, is it? Given how we are ruining our planet, we are clearly not smart. We might just be the first to get kicked off it.

If it is the second case, just like the Babel Fish, the fact that this is by design, proves there's a designer out there, proving the existence of a higher power and that could be God. QED.

Before I go on to prove black is white, I must go help my baby Lego go back to sleep. Sleep. Really. You would think someone who is sleepy will just, you know, fall asleep. But no, we must help them fall asleep. But, some day, this guy is going to be solving differential equations. There is God, I tell you.