We consider ourselves a superior species, and that is the main source of many of our problems. This book will try to explain that our superiority is an illusion, a wishful belief created by an aberration of our brain, the Mind, for which there is only one remedy, humour.
Once man came to believe the supreme achievement of life on our planet was Homo sapiens he was compelled to invent the idea of a progressive evolution, from lower to higher forms of life, to support this belief.
However, there must be something wrong if Nature's greatest accomplishment is a species with a Mind full of wishful desires to escape its reality, and capable of creating a false world of illusions, self-deceptions and fantasies.
Furthermore, Darwin's tautology stressing that "the survival of the fittest is the survival of those best fitted to survive", encouraged man to believe that he was the crowning glory of this progressive evolution, even though Darwin himself said "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Man chose to dismiss any suggestion that evolution might be just a processor that new species could evolve from individuals who were not the strongest or fittest.
It is surely more logical to surmise that new species evolved from those individuals whose development was less well established, and therefore weak and mutable, than from the stronger and fitter members of a species who would tend to preserve the status quo.
It is therefore possible that we are neither risen apes, nor fallen angels, but fallen apes (See Man the Fallen Ape).
For instance, logic suggests that if environmental or climatic changes cause a food shortage the smaller individuals of a species have a better chance of surviving than larger ones because they require less food. Thus, a new and smaller species might evolve perpetuating the qualities that enabled them to survive.
Our recently discovered cousin found on the Indonesian Island of Flores supports this theory. Homo floresiensis, who died out some 18,000 years ago, was only one metre tall and had a brain volume of merely 380 cm3, whereas our common ancestor Homo erectus, was about the same height as we are today with a brain volume in the region of 1000 cm3. What is more, in this restricted area, with limited resources, Flores apparently hunted a dwarf elephant, whilst elsewhere other species of elephant were even larger than present-day species. Fossils of another species of small elephant have been found on the islands of Sicily and Malta and a pigmy mammoth once lived on the Siberian island of Wrangen.
It seems equally possible that domestic animals evolved from the needier and more vulnerable individuals of their species.
If evolution leads to greater, rather than just different, forms of life, why does it lead to species that are more costly to sustain?
The popular view of evolution assumes that cold-blooded animals are lower forms of life, whilst the warm-blooded are higher. Yet cold-blooded animals require and consume far less of the planets natural resources, both for survival and reproduction, than warm-blooded animals. Human beings, above all, are easily the most wasteful of natural resources.
It has been discovered that so-called, 'higher' forms of life have the ability to feel pain more than 'lower' life forms.
Human beings, and especially those amongst us with a more imaginative Mind, have the ability to feel the most pain. Furthermore, our Mind finds physical pain offensive and this increases the suffering we experience with pain.
As each new species evolves, they appear to bring with them an increase in fear. This can be explained by the fact that evolution has brought forth species of increasing complexity, which are therefore more vulnerable or fragile. The fearfulness of humans, particularly during our long infancy, can reach extremes.
The more complex forms of life are prone to a greater number of ailments, including those unique to human beings, such as psychosomatic diseases and mental disorders created by our Mind. Illnesses, such as AIDS, asthma and cancers, gained a foothold because the increase of the pretentiousness of the Mind, its agitation, frustration or stress, caused a reduction in the efficiency of our immune system.
It is also this Mind of ours, which we consider the evolutionary masterpiece, that supposedly makes us superior to all other living things on the planet, that helped us to invent weapons of mass destruction; which we use to annihilate each other; the mere existence of which increases global anxiety and fear; which in turn damages our health and quality of life.
We feel superior to other species because we have managed to increase our life span. In reality, we have merely increased our 'old age span' and by doing so we have created a sterile sub-species, which is rapidly becoming so expensive to maintain in terms of care and medical support, it may soon lead to economic catastrophe.
We double human population every 40-50 years. We do this on a planet with dwindling natural resources that is already forcing many species into extinction. We are transforming our planet into an overpopulated desert, which is most unwise of us. Yet our belief in our superiority prevents us acknowledging reality, and achieving wisdom.
Only man's arrogant belief in his superiority could have invented an 'After I: the deluge' attitude.
With the development of the Mind, we developed a craving to prove our superiority by placing ourselves above life. This is also unwise as it can only be realised by denying reality and thus destroying our planet's ability to sustain us.
Our belief in being a superior species has influenced our explanation of our origins. We are certainly a unique species in many ways, particularly perhaps in our potential for destruction and self-annihilation.
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