This is another challenge from a fellow-blogger. It is a worthwhile thought! Quo vadis?
Evolution in the biological sphere is an automatic process. Random alterations in the genome occur all the time; change is probably ubiquitous in circumstances when movement, perhaps in the form of vibrations (such as electromagnetic vibrations), is also the norm. One can envisage the dances of the particles constituting matter, or the myriad waves of forces permeating all spaces in the universe.
When genetic variation results in new features or characteristics, and the modification enhances the operational or survival capacity of the individual, this may provide the individual (or even the species) with an advantage in survival. This is known as natural selection – the essence of an autonomous pathway.
It has been claimed that a shock wave of radiation from a supernova named Vela about 40,000 years ago affected mankind significantly. The artistic (and possibly conceptual) abilities of Early Man are said to have evolved then. The cave paintings we know are said to have originated within about 2,000 years (or 71 generations) after that shock wave went through Earth.
However, at issue is whether the progress claimed for Nature through this autonomous process of evolution covered the original evolution of Man. Since no inter-species evolution has been proven (only intra-species evolution), and since we apparently have about 222 genes not found in the animal kingdom, how did we evolve? Through extra-terrestrial intervention? By the modification of an appropriate species? Refer THE Adam in the Old Testament, and Zachariah Sitchin’s claim (seemingly based on Sumerian cuneiform writings) that giants from planet Nibiru created mankind.
Evolution is implicated in the concept of reincarnation. Each life is said to offer opportunities for moral improvement – which we certainly need! Here, chance is replaced by choice (free will)!
Nature may yet enable us to evolve through the genome, but would it need a cosmic cataclysm as a trigger? Would we possibly evolve through the intervention of ‘higher beings’? Could any evolution bypass the genome, perhaps in a Lamarkian manner; that is, through the inheritance of acquired characteristics without any change in the genetic pathway?
In a universe in which anything can seemingly happen, we will need to wait and see.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 