naturally selected

One of Darwin's big ideas was that of 'Natural Selection' that nature in a way chooses the best species or members of species to survive in different areas. As humans we defy this law daily. Now there is the old morbid joke of when someone gets hurt or killed because of very stupid activities that 'natural selection' took its toll, but that aside we fight natural selection constantly. Modern medicine is the main opponent. Without modern medicine I wouldn't be here to think about how without modern medicine i wouldn't be here. When i was about 2 i had a massive asthma attack that hospitalized me. Without the hospital i would be dead 16 years ago. My little brother is extremely prone to hand injuries, he would be at the very least 2 fingers short of his current ten. Many people would be practically blind which would most likely cause an early death. Just keep thinking about all the other ways modern medicine has saved us over the years and, if we hadn't had that, who would still be alive?

One quote that sparked my interest was on page 169 : "we forget that each species, even where it most abounds, is constantly suffering enormous destruction at some period of its life" This made me think about all those statistics that environmental and animal rights activists use. Say someone is opposing a mini mall being built by a wooded area. They'll sight that in Town C just 10 miles down the road that green frogs decreased by 10 percent after the construction of their mini mall. Now i don't doubt that sure the increased human activity did have some affect on the wildlife, but also there could have been a very cold winter, or a shortage of rain, or a disease that ran through the green frog population. It pretty much just made me want to question statistics.

Finally i thought of natural selection as applied to my life. Like how i wouldn't be here if i hadn't been in the boy scouts or how i wouldn't have gone to Africa if i hadn't dated a certain girl etc... It was very interesting to look back and see how events unfolded leading to new events. It also made me think of what if i hadn't done some of those things, or had been born a slightly different person...which of course made me think of a song. song/video - to hear the song fastforward one min.