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I found the reading, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life,” absolutely fascinating.  Throughout my life I have explored the different possibilities of how/why humans came into being, especially since giving birth to my girls.  Since motherhood, I swayed towards the “Argument from Design” (28) and after reading the article I am trying to develop a way to unite or perhaps (?) separate the evolution of the physical nature of a human from the spiritual.

“Evolution was not a process that was designed to produce us, but it does not follow from this that evolution is not an algorithmic process that has in fact produced us” (56). I could not help but think of the sermon by the priest in Galileo.  Old Cardinal: “So you have degraded the earth despite the fact that you live by her and receive everything from her. I won’t have it! I won’t be a nobody on an inconsequential star briefly twirling hither and thither. I tread the earth [. . .] and the earth is the center of all things, and I am the center of the earth, and the eye of the Creator is on me” (Brecht 73). I feel like this IS the biggest problem within the Darwin debate. My feeling on various religions/creation are their central beliefs (whether stated or not) are humans as the sole purpose for the development of the universe by GOD…including in this, animals, plants, stars, etc. to be USED by humans…

If this is what is either consciously or unconsciously taught through various religions, people are definitely going to deny the existence of another valid theory of evolution that would not place humans in the center of everything. This would go against what many of us have been taught for centuries. But, I do not believe because Darwin’s theory on the physical evolution of our species makes sense, that we cannot separate our spiritual evolution. I can develop my “mind” accepting that there are energies that live within and without that have still not been “theorized” as of yet, and be ok with that, because I have faith that there is higher BEING that looks out for me…on some plane.