Confronting Science Contrarians: Who says understanding Earth’s Evolution is irrelevant?

Sadly all too many.

I often hear people, not just the religious with their paper thin understanding, but educated rational people who superficially accept the notion of evolution, - (but who've spent little time absorbing what Earth's pageant of evolution has been all about) - dismissing the need to learn anything about it. As if learning how to make money and survive in our modern society is all that matters to understanding our place in the world.

This disregard has led to a general apathy that I can't for the life of me comprehend. Especially considering what an amazingly beautiful, complex, mysterious and absolutely relevant story it is.

Our general apathy towards evolution and a lack of understanding about our Earth’s Ways and Means terrifies me, and as someone with a life long passion for learning about this Earth that created me and my place in the universe, it baffles me to no end.

We are all trapped within our own origins and experiences. The only way for me to convey a hint of my perspective is to share some of the building blocks that went into my own understanding.

For starters, I’m no scholar, I’m no journalist nor professional writer, I'm a tradesman with a respectable mastery in culinary arts and framing carpentry, along with a good deal of working experience in many other trades and a life time of work behind me.

Occupations that require meeting specific expectations according to other’s time schedules in a fast paced real world that doesn't care about my preconceptions or ego. This is important because too many writers seem to have lost their grounding, becoming entranced within their own mindscapes, they've lost sight of real life's constraints and possess little appreciation for our Earth’s physical realities.

Now in my sixties my education began on my grandmother’s lap with old Encyclopedia Britannica articles that were infused with startling discoveries and more questions than answers. It was a fascinating inspiring introduction to my next half century of being spectator to the revolutionary discoveries and insights science shared with those of us who were interested and wanted to learn.

Those years were followed by a life time of curiosity and a proactive drive to learn. To absorb as much of the world around me as I could. The Bible says, seek and ye shall find. I found science the most trustworthy source for substantive information. I've been front row spectator to a half century of fantastical discoveries and developing understandings the likes of which humanity has never known. That part's been wonderful.

It has given us insights to questions that humans have been asking themselves for hundreds of generations. But what has it helped? What good is it when most the people that surround us couldn’t give a flying fart for this physical Earth and it fantastical biosphere, that we all depend on for everything?

Tragically, people who never pondered the reality, (that all we have today is the direct product of four and a half billion years of evolution, unfolding one magnificent day after another), lack the foundation to understand what we are doing to our planet and life support system these days. It explains why we have so many profoundly ignorant, self-deluded and disconnected politicians and corporate 'masters of the universe' these days.

When I toss out a concept such as, our "Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine," it's blank faces all around. Why? I'm fearing listeners have no fundamental conception for the intricate interconnections between our evolving Earth, oceans and land masses. Without that awareness, of course they'll never get it.

After all, our atmosphere is the direct product of an incredible evolutionary process that married geology and biology and took billions of years to unfold. Without understanding how it got here, there's no way one can comprehend what we have,... and what we are doing to "it",... that is, the only life, and economy, support system we have.

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January 6, 2016

{1} Our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/earths-heat-moisture-engine.html

January 9, 2016

{2} Co-evolution of Minerals and Life | Dr Robert Hazen

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/2-coevolution-of-minerals-and-life.html

January 14, 2016

{3} Evolution of Carbon and our biosphere - Professor Hazen focuses on the element Carbon

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/3-evolution-carbon-biosphere-hazen.html

January 23, 2016

{4} Evolution-Considering Deep Time and a Couple Big Breaks