Bird Calendars

NOTES FROM NATURE

By Jerry Toll

Nature and God: Where Does Man Stand?

There is a long-standing debate among social ecologists as to whether humans should be considered a part of the ecology and studied from that perspective. Tribal cultures, generally speaking, consider themselves a part of the natural world. Their belief systems and world views reflect an intimate association with the natural world around them.

But tribal societies have virtually disappeared due to the onslaught of western cultural influences. Western thinking evolved from tribal beliefs and codified its new beliefs in what was to become the dominant Abrahamic religious traditions we now hold.

In the Old Testament,God gave man dominion over the earth.This has been generally considered to mean that man is superior to and outside of nature, that we were chosen to be somewhere just below God but above nature.

Western science presents a different point of view. Darwinian theory holds that all living things evolved over great periods of time from simple life forms to increasingly more complex forms. Humans are the culmination of millions of years of evolution. We are currently top predators on this earth, but by no means the only complex creature and end result of evolution.

These two views, often thought of as mutually exclusive, are, I believe, both true. After all, they are both describing the same phenomena. What the Old Testament describes is as true now as then—humans are top dog.

Intellectually I consider humans as part of the ecology. Those same processes we attribute to nature can also explain our actions as individuals and as a species. For instance, why do humans engage in war? On the surface, it is flagrantly absurd for an individual to suffer the effects of war, and yet war is very much the history of man. Humans have created a system of psychological and sociological reasons why aggression exists. I would add that humans engage in war as a way to control our population.

The biological literature has well documented the cyclical nature of animal populations. The rise and fall of populations is controlled by limiting factors such as food availability or nesting habitat.

For millennia, the spread of the most adaptable species on earth was slowed by aggression between competing populations, i.e. cultures.

War is no longer an adequate limiting factor on humans. The Industrial Revolution, the Green Revolution, and medicine have extended our ability to survive. But that's another story.

Darwin, reflecting his time, didn't consider humans part of the ecological landscape. Instead he separated "natural selection" from "artificial selection." By natural selection he meant those processes that increase the variability of the gene pool, which increases adaptability and may lead to a new species. Artificial selection refers to the domestication of plants and animals.

Both processes accomplish the same thing. The difference is that humans intervene to manipulate the gene pool to produce a desired effect that is beneficial to humans. However, Darwin was at least in part wise to separate the two.

Modern domestication has actually decreased the gene pool by eliminating or minimizing undesirable traits and producing very large numbers of genetically similar plants and animals. Today's monoculture farming is a case in point. In Michael Pollan's book "The Botany of Desire," the author takes the unique perspective that domestication is mutually beneficial to both the plant and to humans.

In other words, we are coevolving. He says we derive a reliable source of food from the domesticated plant. The plant, in exchange, thrives and dominates the landscape by our service to its needs. The farmer insures that it has adequate moisture and nutrients and is protected from predators. By doing so, we humans have suppressed genetic evolution.

All living things co-evolve with other living things that feed on them or rely on them in some manner. Each species is in constant change in response to changes in the environment. It's a constant balancing act between species competing for dominance. When a species can no longer compete, the population crashes. In the case of domesticated plants, only those traits deemed desirable by the seed companies are sought. Pesticides and herbicides act to bolster the plants' abbreviated evolution.

Technology and urbanization have combined to isolate us from our tribal roots. Our peers are the most disenfranchised from nature in history. How we look at the world has a major influence on our actions.

If we view ourselves as part of the whole and realize we are part of the process, perhaps we can better understand what is happening to our world without the subjective interference of stewardship.

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