The Selfish Gene

"It is also a sobering fact that 90% of the cells in “our” bodies are in fact microbes, and that our so-called microbiomes play an essential role in our health and survival. It seems that our microbiomes tend to evolve over our lifetimes towards those of the groups in which we live, and have very little to do with our genetic inheritance."

(Extract from Evolution and the Complexity Principle by Nicholas Beale, found on ProspectMagazine.co.uk)

After some very abstract thinking it is now an ideal moment to state the principles underlying my writing; the lasting principle being that individually we have no free will, but that this is an illusory component of knowledge structure. Consider humanity's tendency to focus on anthropocentric vision, the isolation of individuals, and the tendency to simplify complex arrangements by locating cause in one distinguishable area. Consider Copernicus and Galileo and the physical re-definition of the position of earth in the universe; after the insights made by Galileo about the sunspots viewed on the sun, the actual procession of planets around the sun rather than the sun around the earth, the world and its position was redefined. The problem is that the macroscopic physical arrangements were re-defined but the actually visible arrangement goes through no such process. Only after microbiological discoveries, the development of science in very acute mathematical arrangement which over time has gained an anarchic, non structured form whilst visibly seeming to have a certain overall and continuous development, is it becoming possible to redefine and re-locate humanity not as a species determined by individual will, but the will of the general population. This, of course, has consequences for the interpretation of identity, and also the actual nature of understanding and human thought. 

Scientific discovery is not a model of discipline but a process of discovery, and the Darwinian theory of evolution actually challenging the latter theories of competition and fitness selection, which are rather related to a form of social Darwinism which is an assumption made by Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene". The process of scientific discovery is an exegesis of nature and environment and not an assumption of a priori cause; therefore there is some questioning to be made regarding Dawkins dismissal of culturally relevant religious practices, and traditional practices based on a relationship with a mysterious relationship which has not been answered by scientific discovery. The consequence of dismissing Dawkins' own dismissal of religion as relevant to species development is acute as it re-navigates the social enquiry towards an understanding on why cultural, traditional and social relationships based on symbolism and meaning forming is intrinsic to the overall development of humanity. Also, it is very transparent that the direction of scientific discovery, that is, discovery in itself and in the general order of things, is tending towards dismissal of competition as a necessity for development; in fact it is becoming clear that competition is culturally damaging, and the homogenising automation of industrial practice and the nature of competition within current frameworks is barring development even of value amongst cultures.

So the discovery that religion, though a bureaucracy and the earliest one at that, has positive cultural qualities which, in inculcating a sense of community, morality and value of other people, the stress upon God as a unity are perhaps symbolic of a unity which people tend towards as being drawn towards self-preservation through the understanding of other humans and environment. This may not be genetically understood, but the significance of broad based culture and trust in one another is essential, and this is something which Dawkins has made sincere attempts to dislocate despite its immense value.