Growing up with evangelical Christianity, evolution was a no-no. It wasn’t accepted on any level and it was even the butt of jokes. As kids we’d sing this little song:
I’m no kin to the monkey no no no
The monkey’s no kin to me
I don’t know much about your ancestors
But mine didn’t swing from a tree1
Cute, huh? (Though technically, humans are apes, not monkeys!)
As I got older and wiser I realized that evolution posited a very good explanation for how we came to be and I accepted it. However – having spent much of my middle-school and all of my high-school years in a Christian school, I had to learn about it on my own.
There are a couple of things that I learned along the way that really made me think.
What Does ‘Perfect’ Even Mean?
While many humans suffer from perfectionism, let’s take a look at what “perfect” means.
According to The GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English, the definition most fitting to our context is “to finish or complete; …to give … all that is requisite to its nature and kind.”
Notice how that ends: “requisite to its nature and kind.” “Perfect” has a context, and that relates to the thing and what the thing does.
Growing up Christian fundamentalist, I was taught that we were created in the image of the Judaeo-Christian god, which presumably meant “perfect” before that whole Garden of Eden incident.2 But it’s clear that we humans are far from perfect. We may consider ourselves “advanced,” but a chimp possesses significantly greater strength for its size. We can’t withstand the pressure of the depths of the sea like whales, nor hold our breath for an hour while we play in the water. We don’t have eyes like octopuses (a few extra arms might be nice too!) Why not? Because evolution isn’t about a drive toward super-powers; it’s about making things capable of surviving in the environment they inhabit; as good as it can be for its “nature and kind”.
Survival of the Fitted
Bearing in mind that the primary goal is survival, efficiency comes into play as well. Imagine a big, four-wheel drive truck on mud-worthy tires. It’s designed to have a lot of power for climbing and pulling and can move about on very rough terrain. It can go places that the family sedan couldn’t dream of. But most of them get higher gas mileage, can’t take turns at speed without the risk of tipping over, and don’t produce a very smooth ride on the highway. If you’re buying a vehicle mainly for your daily commute, it would make sense to pick something that is geared toward driving on streets.
That’s where environment comes into play. Creatures adapt to survive under the conditions in which they live, and if their conditions change – and they survive long enough – they’ll change to better suit those new conditions. Like trucks and sedans, living things need to be better for their environment and the conditions under which they must try and survive.
The Cost of Complexity
Evolution didn’t require us to have extra arms and the vision capabilities of an octopus to survive. That’s part of how evolution works, also; like water flowing downhill and finding the paths of least resistance, evolution is about small changes over generally enormous periods of time. What is better for humans with brains that allow for tool crafting and use: more arms or more dexterous hands?
This matters because everything requires energy to function, including bodies and brains. The fuel for most living organisms is food which must be hunted or gathered. If an organism requires a lot of fuel, there’s a greater risk of not getting enough and therefore not surviving. Thus is is more “perfect” to have a balance between the physical tools that we need to operate in our environment and an efficient system that runs on as little fuel as is necessary.
The Past is Prologue
Based on current fossil evidence, Homo sapiens (that’s us) emerged on the African continent around 300,000 years ago. We lived in small, nomadic bands of 20-50 individuals. We likely had deep knowledge of plants, animals, weather patterns and the surrounding landscape. While it’s likely that males did most of the hunting and females the gathering of plants, roots, and insects (as well as caring for the children and managing the camp) it was largely egalitarian. Success would have depended on sharing and cooperation, not competition and domination.
Agriculture began to appear around 10,000 years ago and that changed how Homo sapiens lived. People began to settle in places which would, over time, grow from communities to village to cities. Food surpluses allowed time for people to explore other professions such as artisans, crafters, warriors, priests, etc.
Then, around 1750 CE, came the industrial revolution. Factories began to produce goods on a massive scale, while more humans migrated into cities and worked for factory owners in the production of said goods.
So let’s look a the timeline of Homo sapiens in raw numbers:
| Role | Time Period | % of Human History | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter-Gatherers | 300,000 years – 10,000 BCE | ~99% | Almost all of our species’ history. Our brains evolved in this context. |
| Farming/Agricultural Societies | ~10,000 BCE – 1750 CE | ~0.8% | A relatively short period, but one that laid the foundations for modern civilization. |
| Industrialized/Modern Era | ~1750 CE – Present | ~0.2% | An incredibly brief window in the grand scheme of things, yet it has transformed the world more rapidly than any other period. |
99% of human evolution was geared toward making us capable of surviving efficiently as hunters and gatherers who lived in small, cooperative groups.
Do you see the problem here? We are living in a world for which evolution has not prepared us.
Adaptability is key to survival, and the continued existence of Homo sapiens is a testament to that very ability; we can do this. But for us to thrive in our environment, we need to take a realistic view of what we are, where we came from, and how best to craft a future in harmony with our past.
