This NPR piece Attenborough’s muddled thinking can’t stop human evolution came to our attention this morning by way of David Earle from New Zealand.

David’s blog is In the Company of Hysterical Women.

His comment on yesterday’s Views from the Edge post The American Religion reads, in part:

Fortunately Sir David is totally wrong on all counts. It is only a small fraction of humanity that benefit for these improvements and even then, it has little to no measurable impact apparently on generic change across population. …

But he is tapping into a wider sentiment that some day we might be so in control of our own destiny that we are no longer subject to this nasty, animal based thing called evolution.

Isn’t that when we force our way back to the garden and eat from the second tree?

Editor’s note: David is referring to the Genesis story (Gen. 2 and 3) where what David calls “the “first tree” is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (the tree of control/mastery by which they will “be like God”). “The second tree” is the tree of life (by which the characters in the story would become eternal.)

The Garden story is not history; it’s anthropology and theology. It never happened; it’s always happening.

Your thoughts on the matter are welcome. Leave a comment to promote the discussion.