Edward O. Wilson, the evolutionary biologist, pointed out that early hominids had digestive systems that evolved from C3 photosynthesis to C4, from the leaves of trees and shrubs to the seeds of savannah grasses.
That evolutionary shift explains why I eat McCann’s Irish oatmeal for breakfast, rather than oak leaves. It’s odd to think, as Wilson points out, that a lot of that ancient history is still part of the human genome. If a few genes were turned off and a few others turned on, my bowl of oatmeal wouldn’t look so hot and that stand of hardwoods behind the house would look like a buffet line.
I’m a fan of Wilson’s. I’ve just gotten around to Genesis. He says that poets and seers in the world’s 4,000 or so religions have had a shot at creation stories, and it’s time to let the paleontologists, anthropologists, psychologists, biologists and neuroscientists to take a shot at it.
If you’re like me, this version of Genesis will make you think new thoughts.
• Source: Edward O. Wilson, Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies; New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2019, p. 113.
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