(c) 2008
Though many Darwinists often portray evolution as a virtual foregone conclusion, an honest review of the facts proves this devotion to be based largely on ideology rather than on science. Highly critical of both the way in which Darwinism has been promoted over the years, as well as the glaring lack of true scientific scrutiny applied to this subject, The Gilligan Principle highlights a wide range of monumental problems undermining this profoundly inadequate “explanation” for the existence of life.
Blending Scientific research with social commentary, The Gilligan Principle goes beyond the technical flaws of Darwinism, highlighting the devastating effect this “survival of the fittest” philosophy has had on society. Drawing upon clinical evidence and a wide range of glaring examples ripped straight from today’s headlines that demonstrate the exploding “me first” dysfunction destroying our society, The Gilligan Principle is a must read for those alarmed by this sea-change in culture that now threatens to push our civilization to a very dark end — just as it has so many great nations that came before us.
Preface:
It seems few things evoke as strong a polarity of opinions as does the subject of evolution. Though a great deal has been published over the years that reflects these polarized views, most of this material tends to focus more on the technical aspects of the subject. Very little of this material however, spends much time considering the wider implications of Darwin’s teachings, particularly its effects on society, stemming from its decidedly “utilitarian” view of life.
Though some might consider such a discussion little more than an amusing academic or philosophical exercise, the belief that life is the result of some inexplicable string of “lucky” random accidents, and that humans are therefore nothing more than animals in a concrete jungle, has a direct impact on individual behavior. Such an impact on personal choices by extension thus has wider implications on the development of society as a whole.
Since a community or nation is a composite of individual lives and individual choices, a philosophy that promotes a “me-first”, “survival of the fittest” approach to life, cultivates a very different kind of behavior compared to that promoted by the ideals of past generations. As this Darwinian view of life has gradually supplanted the “take the high-road”, “Golden Rule” kind of beliefs once prevalent in our society, so too has it affected the course of society, and consequently the “quality of life” of those living in it.
The idea that the character and direction of a nation can “devolve” over time as it discards its nobler ideals in favor of a baser “animal brain” approach to life, is not merely some hypothetical concept. It is in fact a very real thing, and is amply demonstrated by the “Rise and Fall” of many past civilizations, such as ancient Rome. What’s more, this effect is clearly evident in the increased social dysfunction we currently see unfolding in our own societies today. Examples of this unmistakable decline include a dramatic increase in violent crime; the consequent exponential increase in prison populations; violent gang warfare now literally turning neighborhoods into war zones all across the country; school-yard, mall, and work-place shootings, etc. This dysfunction draws a sharp contrast with conditions that existed in our society only three or four generations ago in which virtually none of these things occurred.
Unfortunately most Darwinists tend to dismiss outright all objections to evolution on any grounds in something of a well-conditioned Pavlovian response, and particularly those concerns related to its detrimental effects on society. To such well-conditioned fans of Darwin, evolution is considered a “foregone conclusion”. With this philosophy firmly entrenched in their minds, these people are often willing to simply write off this trend towards collapse as “evolution in action”, and thus acquiesce before the encroaching chaos we see now destroying our communities and nations. Other evolutionists have alternately attempted to dismiss these concerns, suggesting that society hasn’t changed over the years – that violent crime and corporate/political corruption is no worse now than it was in our grandparent’s day, or Washington’s day, etc. Some may even suggest that the values and beliefs of past generations had no effect on the integrity, civility, or direction of their society, and thus by extension on the society they bequeathed to us.
Anyone who truly understands history however, knows that these dismissive arguments are either incredibly naive, or outright dishonest. Our society would not be what it is now had it not been for the values and beliefs of past generations that idealized things like virtue, honor, and integrity. These values and ideals strongly motivated previous generations to sacrifice all that they did to “secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity”. In fact, in many ways these values defined their culture, and thus played a pivotal role in the choices and actions they undertook, creating everything we came to inherit from them – and which we have now come to take so completely for granted.
As for crime, it is certainly not a new thing. However there is no question that crime in general, and violent crime in particular, is far worse now than it ever was in 1770, or 1910, or 1950. In our great-grandparent’s day, things like heroin, crack, and cocaine, were virtually unknown, as were car-jackings, drive-by-shootings, gang warfare, etc. People living in those eras never had to worry about their children being shot by other children at their schools, or being mugged in their own neighborhoods, or getting caught in the crossfire between rival drug gangs fighting over control of “turf” in their streets, etc. If anyone today doubts our society has undergone a sharp decline just in the past few generations, they should talk to the parents whose children suffered through the violent school shootings at Columbine High in Colorado, or Sandy Hook elementary in Connecticut, or talk to the survivors of the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing, or those literally living in the midst of the urban war currently being waged in the streets of most major cities in the US – not to mention in cities on either side of the US-Mexico border. In these Mexican cities alone, over 50,000 people have already died just in the past half-decade in a literal war being waged in their streets between ruthless drug lords and legally elected civil authorities.
This growing social dysfunction in our world today is absolutely not the way things use to be, and nothing about it defines a “normal”, well-adjusted society. Unfortunately this chronic dysfunction has become so ubiquitous in our societies now, that too many people today perceive it as the “norm”, never having experienced a world without the constant din of police sirens and violent newscasts. The fact that many suggest that crime and social dysfunction is no worse today than it use to be despite the many garish statistics that clearly demonstrate this alarming trend, only serves to underscore this point.
Obviously, not all of the problems of a society can be easily attributed to a single cause or factor. However, it is clear that as our society has shifted away from the values and ideals of Washington’s day and even our great-grandparent’s day, towards this new “anything goes” Darwinian paradigm where violent dysfunctional behavior is routinely glamorized and promoted, it has ushered in a whole new era of social dysfunction. As we’ve watched this new morality create social problems that were virtually non-existent only a few generations ago, so too have we witnessed a tandem decline in the peace, “tranquility”, and prosperity of the societies in which we now live and attempt to raise our children.
Everyone from those promoting the “gang banger” lifestyle, to those at the heart of the most recent corporate and political scandals (e.g. CEOs of Enron, WorldCom, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, etc. – as well as the politicians who changed protective laws at the behest of their corporate masters, precipitating the 2008 financial collapse, etc.), are all virtual poster-children for this new amoral approach to life. Now largely devoid of any internal moral compass or higher principles other than self and a “survival of the fittest”, “me-first” mentality, such individuals have embraced this new “anything goes” value system and the wide latitudes it provides, and in the process inflicted massive damage on millions of individual lives and families as a direct result.
These examples show more than just the resulting destructive effects that this new “survival of the fittest” approach to life has already cultivated in our world. When this philosophy affects the judgment of a nation’s leaders and society as a whole, the consequences can be dramatic and far reaching, affecting countless hundreds of millions of lives in the process. With very little thought, it soon becomes abundantly clear that following this trend to its logical conclusion, leads us all to a very dark end.
However, before we can speak to the effects Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” view on life has had on modern civilization, we must first address the perception that this view is somehow a “foregone conclusion” or scientific “fact”.
To that end, The Gilligan Principle (intended as a contradiction in terms), begins by first demonstrating the fact that evolution’s extremely nebulous “explanation” for the origins of all life, is troubled at the outset by a vast array of scientific problems that sharply contradicts virtually every aspect of this “theory”. Not the least of evolution’s failings, is the impossible problem of attempting to explain how the many very sophisticated and absolutely essential components of complex animals like you or I, could possibly be produced through any sequence of random events. As we shall see, many very well-established facts make this premise an extremely inadequate explanation for the origins of complex life on this planet, to say the least.
In the process of discussing this evidence, we will also describe some of the more profound marvels that make life possible. As we do, these things alone will offer perhaps the strongest counter argument to the repetitive and yet vacuous assertion that “random accident” could somehow create such extremely sophisticated cellular mechanisms, including the tiny machines that lie at the very heart of the miracle of life itself.
Perhaps the most stunning of all of these, is our DNA. In essence, this amazing technological marvel (for lack of a better description) represents an incredibly advanced means of storing a vast amount of very complex information – information that is the very blueprint of life itself. As we explore some of the various aspects of these things, we will find that DNA is as profound, as it is incredibly sophisticated.
Yet as vital as this information storage mechanism is, by itself it is completely useless. In order for a cell to tap into the vast library of vital blueprint information it contains, that cell must first have an array of other specialized components equal to the task. All of these support mechanisms, working in concert, are in effect what enable our cells to read, decode, and finally translate all of the complex information locked away in our DNA into all the essential sub-components our bodies need to function and survive.
As we examine a number of these key cellular mechanisms, we will begin to see how all of these marvels working together actually allow each of our cells to operate and sustain life throughout our lives, and beyond. These examples will serve well to illustrate our point, that life – though routine to us and thus often taken for granted – is itself a profound and remarkable thing of wonder. In truth, we have only just begun to unravel the mysteries of life, and yet with each new discovery, the more breathtaking it all becomes.
While considering all of this, we will find that these highly sophisticated components of life eloquently prove our point – that life is anything but the product of random accident. In fact, these marvels in their own way represent perhaps the strongest argument there is against any vaguely defined hypothesis that complex creatures such as ourselves could be produced by some completely undefined, and thus inexplicable sequence of random accidents.
As we allow these things to make this point for us, we will at the same time come to draw a strong contrast between these two diametrically opposite philosophies on life. Beyond merely dabbling in an academic argument over the origins of all life, we will underscore the reality that this contrast in philosophies has significant implications for the long-term prospects of our society.
In a very real sense, the more traditional view – that life is a miraculous and profound gift – and the values born of this perspective, served a vital role in our society all its own. In fact, it was a force that once helped create and then shape the whole of Western Civilization, drawing us out of the Dark Ages and propelling us upward towards ascent. By contrast, the notion that we are little more than animals born as some meaningless random accident, brings with it a moral vacuum that has eroded away the ethical centers that once played such a vital role in shaping individual lives, and thus our societies as a whole.
Moreover, this shift away from these fundamental values and ideals towards an “anything goes”, “survival of the fittest” animal brain mentality, has helped develop a growing trend towards chronic dysfunction and social decline that now spreads across all walks of life, eroding away the very civility and prosperity of our society. This decay can now easily be seen extending from individual families and communities, up to the highest levels of corporate and political governance. In the process, this cultural shift has brought with it a dramatic decline in the most important qualities of life, including the “domestic tranquility” that is an intangible, yet priceless aspect defining the health of any society or civilization.
To underscore this point, we will consider some of the more recent problems and trends in society that illustrate these things in the starkest of terms. As examples, we will review a number of disturbing statistics that reflect the alarming increase in violent crime and exploitation undermining the very heart of our societies. In this part of our discussion, we will also highlight many of the key factors that led directly to the recent global financial crisis – a proverbial “canary in the coal mine” event that sent shock waves across Western Civilization, and that promises to weigh heavily on our societies well into the foreseeable future.
Without question, we now know this event was precipitated (in simple terms) by the supplanting of the values that encouraged integrity and something our grandparents once routinely called “Christian charity”, with this new “anything goes” “law of the jungle” morality. In the process of re-normalizing the values and ideals of our society, such consequent events have inflicted a great deal of harm on millions of lives, here and across the globe. Tandem to these events, we have witnessed a marked decline in our “quality of life” and standard of living, not to mention a shift in the global balance of power, threatening our nation’s future while pushing many of our free world allies to the brink of collapse.
Considering many of these more recent events, it is no hyperbole to state that this shift in social paradigms and the consequent social dysfunction it has cultivated, is pressing our civilization towards a very dark end. And yet despite everyone realizing a serious systemic problem now grips our societies, few are willing to come to terms with the reality of this thing that now threatens our demise, just as it has in so many of the great nations and empires that came before us.
The beliefs and values interwoven in the culture that created and shaped Western Civilization, both drove the choices of those who founded our nation, as well as defined the core principles that produced the phenomenal success we inherited from them. To discard the values that were such key ingredients in producing the most prosperous civilization in human history in favor of their exact opposites, cannot help but precipitate the exact opposite of such success. One does not have to look too deeply back into history to find a wide range of solid examples that bear this principle out in very sobering terms.
Of all of these past civilizations that demonstrate this principle, few are more telling – or more foreboding – than the story of ancient Rome. Their “Rise and Fall” thus serves as a very clear cautionary tale that should do a great deal more than just give us pause, as it offers insights into the future of our own society should we continue to parallel the path they followed, and which brought them to their disastrous end. This is particularly disturbing in light of the fact that history has this unmistakable tendency to cycle back around to repeat itself, defining this very clear pattern of “Rise and Fall” that permeates virtually every corner of human history.
If we as a people possessed even a fraction of the wisdom or intelligence we so often boast, we would consider carefully the message of this pattern in history, and mark well the implications it holds for our futures. The moral of this story is as certain, as is the fact that an obsession over “money and power” breeds political corruption and decline. Our ignoring this message and discarding the values that were so essential to our civilization’s success in favor of these more short-sighted “animal brain” opposites, all-but guarantees our following this pattern to the same conclusion it produced for all the other great nations that came before us, and who likewise ignored this key lesson of history.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this “deja vu” parallel, is that there is no mystery to any of this. We know with great clarity the end point that awaits us as this pattern and its attendant dysfunction plays out towards its certain end. We have a very good understanding of these events in history and the forces behind them, even as we witness its effects unfolding all around us now in our own communities. Yet despite this knowledge, and despite all that it implies, we still press blindly ahead – arrogantly rushing headlong down this same road to ruin.
