Wednesday, May 26. 2004
All other animals, even up to the higher levels (possibly excepting dolphins?)
will walk into a clearing with animal tracks and --if they can't see, hear, or
smell an animal-- not think anything more of it. It doesn't matter how hungry
they are.
There have been many debunked theories about why people are so different than
the other animals; tool use, opposing thumbs, language, and these days,
consciousness or self awareness (at least it wont be debunked since it can't be
defined). Though the debate rages, anyone who's ever owned a dog knows that
animals can be conscious and self aware. That's not what makes us so different
than the other animals.
It is becoming more and more clear to anthropologists though, that the parting
branch when humans became so different from the other animals was when they
started to believe that those tracks in the clearing might lead to an
animal. Though they couldn't see an animal, and they couldn't smell it, they
_chose_ to follow those tracks. All other animals will starve to death before
wasting energy to follow animal tracks when there is no immediate evidence of
an animal present.
But men followed those tracks. They CHOSE to ACT on a belief that the tracks
would lead to prey. That required something that (IMO) no other animal has.
That required hope and faith.
It is the same hope and faith that leads two brothers to spend
thousands of hours and dollars developing a flying machine when many
"experts" scoff and
say it can't be done. It is the same hope and faith that makes an inventor
run failed experiment after failed experiment to develop a dry cell that nobody
else thinks possible or even sees any use for. This is the faith
that leads a scientist to spend a lifetime chasing down a truth he 'believes'
is there.
Even today, when we follow animal tracks and come upon the animal,
we are filled with a rush of excitement. I imagine those first humans to
follow those tracks were very hungry indeed, and that when they found that
animal the experience was nothing short of a miracle.
Faith is a source of hope. Saint Paul defines hope as "the evidence of
the existence of things unseen". I believe faith and hope are what
differentiates humans from animals. Faith and hope are things you need to
exercise, to develop.
We've come some way since that first tentative attempt to follow those tracks.
I truly believe that being human --in the sense that we are something more than
animals-- absolutely requires us to exercise hope, and an abiding faith in something unseen. For some it will be the reliability
of the scientific methods and tenets, for others it will be some notion, such
as "There is no God", or we are all part of one consciousness, and
for others, it will be a religion, or military dogma. For me, the older faiths
are the best. Other faiths may be shallow, either due to lack of time to adapt
and grow strong in the face of trials, or because the signs they are founded
upon (the "tracks") don't lead to any profitable ends (the "prey").
Faith needs to lead to something "rewarding" for all human kind. Our
faith and hope must make us better people --though better is itself
indefinable-- because that's the only way we're going to make it off this rock.
Even here, only hope in that better future makes me understand
that "off this
rock" is what's in store for our people some day, if we just
have hope and follow our faith.
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