When one thinks of goals to accomplish in life and how to accomplish them, the life of the eminent American biologist, Edward O Wilson, quickly comes to mind.
A world renowned biologist, Professor Wilson taught at Harvard for over three decades. Retired since 1996, Wilson continues to research and write and recently published “The Meaning of Human Existence”. Not a bad feat for a retired 85 year old scholar!
A world renowned biologist, Professor Wilson taught at Harvard for over three decades. Retired since 1996, Wilson continues to research and write and recently published “The Meaning of Human Existence”. Not a bad feat for a retired 85 year old scholar!
Born in 1929 into a socially conservative Christian family in Alabama, Professor Wilson long left his Christian faith and went on to concern himself with scientific discovery instead. A world expert in ants and other life forms, Wilson’s concern is with the preservation of biodiversity. He’s also known as the pioneer and father of “sociobiology”.
Winner of two Pulitzer prizes for non-fiction, Wilson seeks in his latest book to explain how humanity evolved. His answer is, given his academic credentials, based on science. But in addition, he calls for science and the humanities to join hands in explaining the mystery of why humans are the way they are. And more importantly, he sees the humanities as a way of keeping us human.
Like most Americans brought up in a political system where checks and balance are seen as a check on tyranny, Wilson believes the humanities can keep science in check when required, whether in regard to creating artificial life, genetic manipulation, or robotic technology. The question he asks which policymakers should do as well is the following: How much de we as a species want to retrofit the human genotype? Do we really want to strive for longer lives, enlarged memory, better vision, superior athletic ability? The list is endless and legislators should take note.
Wilson has spent a lifetime examining the natural world. As a Darwinian, he understands the process of how natural selection works. The human species unlike any other species on earth, he maintains, is about to abandon natural selection, the process that created us, in order to direct our own evolution by human selection. Genes and their prescribed traits can be what we desire. Wilson might have called it the ultimate consumer order in a consumer based world!
The humanities is a discipline that studies human culture and includes such disciplines as literature, philosophy, religion, history, communication studies, and law. For Wilson, the key is for the analytic powers of science to be joined with the introspective creativity of the humanities. Only then, he argues, can we truly understand the meaning of human existence.
As a non-believer, Wilson believes that religion rose from a belief in what he calls the “supernatural”. Religion, he argues, implies intention which in turn implies design. Human beings thus exist for a purpose because that’s how God designed us. Wilson laments humanity’s belief in a “supernatural design” and sees it as a sword used to keep people apart. He describes it as a form of fanaticism leading to conflict between different groups. He points to the current conflict between Shiites and Sunnis in the Middle East as one example.
Wilson argues that the principal driving force of mass murder is “lethal tribalism” and that the central rationale for lethal tribalism is sectarian religion and in particular, those faithful to different myths. I’ll come back to this later.
In contrast to religion, science takes a less charitable view of how humans evolved. For science, it is the accidents of history rather than the intentions of a designer that explains how humans evolved. There is no advance design, but instead overlapping networks of physical cause and effect.
Wilson sees liberation in not believing in “supernatural” entities. For starters, it means that we as a species are the authors of our own destiny: we can do either good or harm. We have only ourselves to blame or congratulate for all that is good and bad. Wilson laments habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and population growth. He goes on to argue that only human beings can solve these problems. This, rather than a belief in God, is where our attention as a species should be.
SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
This book will no doubt upset many in the religious community. Nevertheless, Wilson raises some important issues with regard to what it means to be human that should serve to unite both believers and non-believers. His call for the humanities to be joined with science as a way of understanding human nature is a call to arms seeking to preserve that which makes us human.
In an age where universities across the Western World are cutting back on the humanities, both citizens and policymakers should seriously reconsider this short sighted policy. Do we really believe as citizens living in an advanced and civilized society that the primary purpose of universities is to produce consumers and workers?
The humanities can help us in so many ways. Let’s start with what Political Science brings to the table. In “The Social Conquest of Earth”, published in 2013, our ever busy octogenarian explains how social groups came together through cooperation to create the world we now live in. Political Science is, to a certain degree, the study of how groups cooperate in creating civil society. It’s the study of why and how policies are implemented, whether in regard to human rights legislation or the environment.
Law is the study of the rules we choose to live by. These rules represent our values and aspirations as a society, and they’re developed over centuries. The best way to fully appreciate a society’s legal system is to understand that society’s history. One is required to read Canadian history to fully understand why the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was incorporated into Canada’s constitution. Only then will one understand which groups were marginalized. The Charter is then put into perspective.
Literature in contrast is about the telling of a story which usually involves some form of human emotion. Love, anger, and betrayal are some of the topics discussed. People read novels, plays, poems, and short stories for a reason: they seek to understand why they and other people behave the way they do.
History has the enviable title of being the study of everything! Studying history allows us to understand where we come from and where we may possibly be going. One can study the history of religion, science, literature, political events, and so on. Is there a nobler field of study?
The study of religion of course also has its rightful place. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have roots in history. And religion can, at least in part, be used to understand why humans evolved the way they did.
As for Professor Wilson’s belief that religion is responsible for the greatest number of human atrocities, history shows he’s wrong. Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao, and Pol Pot were all secular dictators and non-believers responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people.
And as for the current conflict in the Middle East, an argument can be made that countries like Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Yemen are in the sad state they are today because of harsh rule by secular dictators who failed to establish civil society based on the rule of law. Professor Wilson is a great scientist but a great historian he’s not!
Interviewed recently on the Charlie Rose Show, Professor Wilson stated that he was realistic enough to know that he may not be around for much longer despite being in good health. He’s thus busy writing as much as he can while he still has the physical and mental ability to do so. One only hopes the Nobel Committee will reward him with a Nobel Prize before he leaves us.
