It’s a shame that people will try to force tradition onto something, when in fact their so called “tradition” is actually a relatively new concept. This is much like the debate, or “controversy” over marriage equality.
There’s also large swaths of the religious right wing who will try to state that for centuries people believed the Earth was flat. This is 100% incorrect. The Ancient Greeks knew there was a curvature of the Earth, they even had drawings which showed the Earth as round. The concept of a “flat Earth” is actually a relatively new concept. It wasn’t really devised until the 18th or 19th centuries. And it basically came down to a pissing contest between a sect of Protestants and Catholics. This sect of Protestants basically got mad at the Catholic Church and said “no, Earth is flat, lalalalala, not listening”.
The same is true of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. If you listen to many in the religious right wing, they’d have you believe that no church on Earth believed Darwin’s theories were valid. This is also inaccurate. The Church of England actually thought that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution explained in a very intelligent and scientific manner how God created the Earth and the animals. Evolution is a fact, it happens. We see it on a microscopic scale today, because we as a species (just as other animals and plants) must adapt to new surroundings.
What the Church of England (and many other churches at the time) could not wrap their heads around was the concept that nature is inherently cruel.
Need some examples? I’ve got some examples.
There is a wasp that when the female is ready to lay her eggs, will find a cockroach. The roach is stung in the brain, essentially zombifying it. The roach is still alive. The wasp, along with some helpers, will drag the roach to an enclosure, the female will lay her eggs inside the roach, and then once she’s exited the enclosure, the wasps seal it up. Keep in mind, the roach is still alive. It has to be alive so that when the eggs hatch, the larva can feed on the roach meat. If the roach is dead, the meat is no good and the larva cannot feed.
Another example; there is a tree and an ant that have an interesting life cycle. More so for the tree than the ant. The ant kind of gets the shaft here. In this particular part of the world, the ants do not climb the trees, they just remain on the ground level. The trees, however, will release spores, which float down to the ground. Here’s where the ant got the short end of the stick. If a spore lands on an ant, it will burrow into the ant’s brain and essentially rewrite it’s thought patterns. The ant suddenly has not choice but to climb the tree. At a certain height, the ant clamps it’s pincers into the tree and stays there, while the spore feeds on the ant and grows. This becomes another seed pod, which will grow, explode and drop more spores.
These are just in the insect world, there’s other examples, like a wolf pack. Wolves are pack hunters, and often will drive an animal away from it’s main herd. If they are successful in doing so, they will nip and bite at the animal, ripping chunks of flesh off of it. They aren’t just making the animal injured and tired, the wolves are literally eating on the run. While the animal they are chasing is still alive.
These aren’t examples of nature being kind. These are examples of what nature is.
Turn the Page 