Subject: [Tweeters] answers to a question
Date: Jul 2 12:09:27 2010
From: Ian Paulsen - birdbooker at zipcon.net


HI Connie et al.:

Connie wrote:

1. Strict environmentalists said nature has no morals. There is only
survival of the fittest, natural selection, evolution. Even people
don't really have morals - they have ways of behaving that maximize
survival.
I've been reading up on evolution and the term Survival of the fittest
isn't really accurate. Survival of the Adequate is more accurate. You have
to be just good enough to pass your genes on to the next generation. We
all know Humans that fit that category! ;-)

2. Religious environmentalists said there is intelligent design and
the creator is good. We ourselves have been given stewardship of
nature, but also free will, so sometimes we behave badly toward
nature, and nature reacts with imbalance.
I've been reading the latest book by Peter Ward titled: The Flooded
Earth: Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps. On page 93, set in the
Sacramento Valley in the year 2135. He writes: The crows, the smartest of
all birds, were quckly evolving into tight social structures... They had
found thatb ird eggs made great meals, and, and when the birds were gone
they took to attacking larger game. Already there were three or four known
cases of small children being pecked to death and partly eaten. The war
between humans and crows was now joined in earnest..."

The Corvids may have the last laugh!

3. In-betweeners said there is a separation between nature and
society. With a few exceptions (eg., Ravens; some social animals),
animals do not have morals. But we must in order to govern ourselves,
because we are social creatures who live together, invent much of our
environment, and affect almost all of it.
I don't know about this. Birds might have an unwritten "bible" in which
a divine Protoavis that gave birth to the universe through the big Hatch.
So I guess the bird god is a goddess.

sincerely
--

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
" Which just goes to show that a
passion for books is extremely unhealthy."
from Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart".