ANTHRBIO 166 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Woolly Mammoth, Branching Process, Psychological Resistance
9 Mar 2016
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To many, evolution gnaws at their sense of self. If evolution offers a lesson, it seems to be that we"re not only related to other creatures, but, like them, also the product of blind and impersonal evolutionary forces. If humans are just one of many outcomes of natural selection, maybe we aren"t so special after all. You can understand why this doesn"t sit well with many people who think that we came into being in a different way from other species, as the special goal of a divine inten- tion. No other scientific theory produces such angst, or such psychological resistance. It"s clear that this resistance stems largely from religion. You can find religions without creationism, but you never find creationism without religion. Many religions not only deem humans as special, but deny evolution by asserting that we, like other species, were objects of an instantaneous creation by a deity.
