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Thomas Huxley,
Darwin's strongest defender,
observed
that "No rational man,
cognizant of the facts,
believes that the Negro
is the equal
still less the superior,
of the white man."
The assertion
that the degree of rational "thinking"
of any species
is illustrative of its position
on the ladder of evolutionary hierarchy
is only a decision
by an organism
(and specific people)
with a vested interest
in what is being decided.
What does
a bristlecone pine
do
during six thousand years
of life?
What does
a blue whale
do
with the largest brain
on Earth?
Without an answer to these questions
are any pronouncements
about the value or purpose
of their lives
any more meaningful
than those older pronouncements
made
about Negroes
or Women?
Will any arguments
that this analogy is imperfect
matter to those generations
who see blue whales only in books
and look upon our beliefs
as we now look back
upon Huxley's? |
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