We all have an excuse - we’re a product of our ancestors!

In the last blog I was trying to convey the central message that there are certain things to explain why we are the way we are, and also, why we are where we are. To help understand that a bit more it’s important to understand a little bit about how we have evolved as a species, not in some kind of deep biological way but rather in a ‘we just didn’t suddenly appear yesterday as some might have you believe’ kind of way.

Creationists, for example, would have you believe that we, the earth, universe and so on emerged or appeared around 6,000 (or so) years ago. They would also have you believe that Adam and Eve were the starting point for the human race.

Back in 2012 when a new visitor centre at the Giants Causeway in County Antrim was being constructed, discussions on the nature and content of the various exhibition space in the new build received some interesting comments from the very notable, highly respected and normally placid professor Brian Cox. He was aghast that, the National Trust (under pressure from some local politicians) had backed a proposal to include a display on creationism.

Referring to those in favour of such an idea as ‘intellectual baboons’ which (would in my opinion) akin to proposing a new coat of magnolia for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he captured for many what was the unacceptable side of both political ideology and religious orthodoxy.

Like it or not, Creationism is a plain untruth. The story of Adam & Eve is equally untrue. It holds no water all. People are entitled to believe such a view but they need to stand aside when it comes to the efforts of others to try to explain the history of the universe and evolution. To locate such a ‘story’ alongside established fact is akin to providing the ‘airwaves’ for a Holocaust denier because you believe in the idea of free speech.

Again, holocaust deniers can hold such a in the privacy of their own home but when it crosses into the public domain and is held up alongside firmly established fact, there is simply no sound or ethical rationale for it. Putting the story of creationism alongside overwhelming evidence of how planet earth has evolved, particularly in a publicly-funded building because of the local sensitives is like telling a morbidly obese five year-old you can keep eating sweets and you’ll grow up to be fit and healthy because no-one had the wit to tell him or her otherwise early on.

Back to reality. It’s estimated that the universe is at least 14 billion years old and our planet somewhere in the region of 4.6 billion years old. Our current human form, the Homo Sapien, is estimated to have been around for about 100,000 years, but there is evidence to trace our evolution and the various ‘stages of transformation’ we have undergone as far back as 3.6 billion years, with some suggestion that there are ‘potential candidates’ that pre-date this.

As human life has evolved, it is so that we carry in our DNA minute bits of evolutionary history. Just as we have inherited fragments of DNA from our parents, and their parents before that, so our children carry that evolutionary history into their future, and in turn, pass on to their children elements of evolution woven into their DNA fabric. It is therefore unsurprising to learn that we are direct descendants of the history that has gone before us and naturally will inherits various traits.

One of the more famous references made to the way in which we work is our flight, fight or freeze response. In an age when early humans were pursued by bigger and larger predators, choices made in an instant often determined whether you ate or you were the meal itself. In many situations we are faced with these three fundamental choices inherited through no fault of our own. For example, public speaking – the words fail to come out (you freeze), you panic and scarper off stage (flight), or you take a deep breath and confront your fear of speaking in front of an audience (fight).

Our evolution is of our course more than just related to things that have happened thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years in the past. How society currently exists, finds its roots in many of the more recent developments, for example, the development of agricultural and industrial societies whilst dynasties, empires and states can be traced far back to the existence of small communities.

The concept of working for the greater good can be located in the idea of working in the name of God whilst the existence of God helped to account for the unexplained, much of which still exists today. How ‘tribalism,’ ‘mob mentality,’ the fear of ‘the other’ and the relevance of symbols, metaphors or stereotypes, which is all still very much alive today, can of course be traced back over history.

We owe a lot to our ancestors, which of course is both burden and benefit – we most definitely wouldn’t be where we are now without them. Their endeavours made it possible for us to be where we are right now.

However, knowing more about how we have evolved though goes a long way to explaining a shed load of stuff and therefore you can ease off on giving yourself a hard time for many of your mistakes and misdemeanours – you can blame some distant relative from the far-off past instead.

Had it been another person who mated with your mother or father, perhaps you might have been a future president of the United States. No, even that equation does go anyway towards explaining the current incumbent of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.