[b]Charles Darwin
We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.[/b]
Let’s file this one under, “uh, oh”.
Nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life!
Either that or just shrug and move on.
Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life and induces what I have called Divergence of Character.
Well, he had to call it something, right?
Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult - at least I have found it so - than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind…We behold the face of nature bright with gladness…We do not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects and seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life.
It’s a fucking butcher shop, isn’t it?
I know, let’s ask God.
But Natural Selection, as we shall hereafter see, is a power incessantly ready for action, and is immeasurably superior to man’s feeble efforts, as the works of Nature are to those of Art.
Maybe, but nowadays we give it a fright or two.
A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.
For example, our fair result.