Can biology help us?

I'm pretty sure you weren't expecting this to get scientific. After all, what has biology got to do with the miserable state of the world today. No, I'm not going to lecture you about environmental destruction, global warming, pollution, or whatever. There are more than enough people who can handle that a lot better than I can. No, in keeping with my theme of simplicity, I only want to recall to mind some things that all of us actually know, but we don't think about very often.

There are those, and not a few of them being scientists and reasonable people, who would maintain that human beings are, at bottom, just animals. Now, I'm also not going to go off about humanity being the "pinnacle of Creation" either. My point is much simpler: yes, we share much in common with our animal cousins (our DNA is 98% the same as chimpanzees), but we are, nevertheless, different. Every animal (and plant, of course) on the planet is unique and special in some way, and each species is biologically programmed to do what it does best. That's really how it works, and there is little we can do about that. Still, human beings have capabilities and abilities that none of our animal cousins have, and it is toward these that I'd like to direct your attention.

I know some of you are asking, "are we really all that different?" but I would maintain the answer is "yes", but this answer has two parts: "how?", and "what does it mean?".

My first piece of evidence is that last question. We can, do (and I would say, must) ask what things mean. We know of no other species to date that thinks about, considers or searches for meaning. Yes many species communicate, in a variety of ways, but we've yet to find any other species asking about anything. Humans can ask questions. Humans can question. And if nothing else makes us different from other species, this certainly does. This does not mean, however, that we're better than any of the others. Please note: I said it makes us different. The corollary of being different is where we find the challenge, however: since there is something that we can do that no other species can do, and since each species on earth is designed to do what it does best, then it only seems logical to postulate that since we can question, we should be doing it to the best of our ability. I, personally, don't think that's too much to ask (pun intended).

When is that last time you questioned something? When is the last time you asked yourself what something really meant? If you haven't done it for a while, I can only recommend that you start practicing again. It's like any other capability that we have: if we don't use it, we lose it; what rests, rusts.

My advice, then? Question everything.