Monday, March 17, 2008

Why Darwin is wrong, it is not the fittest that survives but those for whose God's appointed days are not over yet



I am perplexed why people think this video is heart-warming or tender. I think this woman has a death wish. However, this illustrates a good point and is a good example of why Survival of the Fittest is not the rule that truly applies to how a group sample changes over time.

Following Darwin's survival of the fittest, she has twice escaped her fate: she rescued a hungry (skinny lion's are not usually over-stuffed) lion and then she came up to his pen and reached in. According to Survival of the Fittest, this woman's life is such that she would die before child bearing to make the group of humans fitter going forward.

Here is the point that is missed. This woman will likely die a Steve Irwin death, not due to stupidity because we have already seen her stupidity was not enough twice already. She will die when her God given days are over.

So what if she dies as a lion appetizer? Well, this is no different than someone who often eats bad foods (henceforth called Fatty for endearment) dying from a blocked artery or heart attack or someone in a high stress job (such as a CEO and henceforth called the suit for effect) dying of a heart attack. In the examples of Fatty and the Suit, they are not necessarily less fit, especially if Fatty eats a lot but excercises a lot so that he actually looks and acts fit and especially considering the Suit exemplifies all the characteristics we admire in this here corporate America.

It is not unnatural for people to die doing what they do most of the time, by simple probability. If at any point in time, you have a 1% chance of finding out you won the lottery, it should be no surprise that you find out at work if you are a workaholic, at the gym if you are sick and ripped like Schwarzenagger or at Starbucks if you are a yuppy.

Besides, she looks like she could have had kids already if she had wanted to so that the supposed certain effects of Natural Selection would be mute at the time of death.

What is the moral of the story?
I would rather die with a full stomach in my 90's than IN a full stomach any day, so I will not be rescuing or hugging lions any time soon. Oh and I am not going near stingrays, fires, fubu (the blowfish, not the clothing brand, although wearing the wrong brand/color of clothing in the wrong place would be a bad idea too) or downtown Atlanta either just to better my chances of dying the way I want since I cannot control the when.

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