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Dominique Green
About Me
Site Title
Welcome! My name is Dominique Green and I am a poet. I studied Computing Science and Management Studies at Glasgow University and am disabled. I like reading science, evolution, politics, philosophy and modern history books and enjoy watching sci-fi DVDs. My poetry indeed tends to be about all these things, and there is normally strong atheistic thought throughout, or very certainly a vigorous people aspect or relationship focus.
I hope that when you read my pages you will gain an insight into the wrongs, injustices, and some of the dangers of Christian fundamentalism, because it must be questioned with extreme Islamic fundamentalism since negligence to fairness exists in both. You will become more aware of atheistic thought and humanist principles, get an inside look at disability, and you will get the opportunity to analyse creationism, faith and evolution by entering into the creationism/evolution debate. You'll question whether or not disability and illness are really truly accepted by the Christian fundamentalist church, and you'll grapple with life's origins and humankind's beginnings as you come face to face with the creationism and evolution as two polar opposites as one of then respects reason whilst the other does not.
Reason is what we do, and we must not smudge it and then call our
conclusions rational. Pillars of today's faith will be analysed, like Prof Alister McGrath (Oxford University), C S Lewis (author of the Narnia Chronicles and apologetic books like Mere Christianity) and Dr David Laurenson (Edinburgh University), which should let you come to your own conclusion about religion and secularism.
I believe in freedom of speech. I believe that you are free to say that god is a wrongness in our society and world today, and that you make or break your own relationships as there is no supernature to intervene or supplement. Truth is beautiful, because it lets you call it a viewpoint when you have to, as so often passions rise to compete for morality, and so the more we classify religious indictments as opinions and theological doctrine’s as dogma, the more the real truth will emerge. Evolution is true, and for me, I evolved, and nobody should be disrupted just for saying it. Science is for me, especially through medical science, and is not just a high up abstraction to be.
You can find some of my poems in Filling The Void, which is a selection of humanist and atheist poetry and is edited by Jonathan MS Pearce. It is on amazon, Kindle, Nook and Kobo, and is printed in the UK, the USA and in Austrailia. Also, I am on Facebook.
Here's some more of my poetry for you to enjoy.
Democracy
We all need to know that democracy is,
About freedom of speech and free choice,
And about how freedom of expression entitles,
All of us everywhere to have a voice.
Democracy should be taught in schools,
As a compulsory module, not optional,
Because if pupils hear of it in their class,
We won't find it abstract or impersonal.
Democracy was fought over and died for,
In the two great wars so cold and massive;
It's our entitlement to accept and explore,
Their soldiers' extremely long missive.
It gives us equality in elections, in voting,
Because there’s one vote, one person,
So don't over think your representation,
If you become something of a sensation.
It gives human dignity in so many things,
In all aspects it gives a certain quality of life,
In social services, medical care and business,
Each one of us can stand tall even in strife.
It has been analysed by foreign secretaries,
Of western nations as well as the Middle East;
For a way to secure, encourage and enthuse,
Governments to end the dictatorship beast.
It's heard in the cry of children with diversities,
By social workers and throughout the world,
Who see the need of their own opinions,
And of adopted families of loving accord.
It gives us our self and very own identity,
By fashion, opinion and musical taste,
And imbues us with the market's question,
"What would you like to buy? With haste?
A society that embraces democracy,
Imbues its freedom in its children's voice,
In their view of what it means to be a person,
And this sense of worth gives a poise.
Your right to speak doesn't come from God,
But from democracy endowed by birth,
By medicine, business, government and geology,
In evolution's inclusive course without girth.
Evolution says I am always included,
By my abnormality, my normality or by my quirk,
By genetics, by mutation or natural selection,
As our perceptions, behaviour and politics work.
We each contribute to the heath of people,
Disabled, agile, coloured, poor or snob,
Because society is progressive, changing,
As it is always quietly and effortfully on the hob.
Democracy is in-built and in the blood,
It is a birth right by setting and assumption,
Which your life either destroys or embraces,
In objectifying expression, a reception.
The more we talk about it, the more we'll live,
In harmony with each others differences,
By sharing, caring, and loving and giving,
Bringing reasons for all our distinct courses.
Democracy is positive and the way forward,
For criminality, poverty, education and health,
For what you think is vital and important,
For the nation's morality and wealth.
Of course, wealth is by no means the issue,
And shouldn't ever be an important factor,
When choosing a baby's home, a country's sway,
When you are yourself the adjudicator.
So when you yourself validate democracy,
Remember you may be just citing yourself,
As another benefactor of democracy,
Since it is about our lifestyles, the self.
Dominique Green
Milliard F Simmons
At Pearl Harbor I was a Second Class Gunner’s Mate,
On the USS LCS(L)-53, it was my home straight,
And we had radar picket duty with my proud gun,
Between Okinawa and Japan, my 20mm connon.
Unfortunately, I got an infection in my right hand,
But our craft was too small to have a doctor at hand,
But the destroyer William D Porter was right on duty,
So our skipper knew I’d loose my hand, so he did hurry.
He contacted the destroyer which pulled up aside,
I was chair lifted onto her, and luckily the sea did abide,
Felt so happy to set foot on her, and my mates teased,
That I’d be exchanged for ice-cream any day, they eased!
I was only there for one night, then went to hospital,
I went onto a hospital ship anchored that so was brutal,
And after Porter had dropped me, she returned to duty,
But within the hour was sunk by the Japanese in cruelty,
I got back into good shape on the hospital ship,
So went back to my ship, discharged and feeling tip;
I checked my record for all of the ships that I served,
And I was surprised, the Porter’s listed unreserved!
Dominique Green
Carl Carlson
I was up on deck of the USS Arizona doing the morning chores,
When another plane came along, so I just passed it by, gores,
Because they landed at Ford Island all the time, but this time,
It was strafing me, attacking me repeatedly as I was the prime.
So I ran forward to get under cover, and I did not get hurt,
But then another plane came around the same way, girt,
But again, nobody got hit, so I proceeded to go inside,
Back to my battle station, when a bomb hit where I did hide.
It knocked me out, ruptured both lungs, all lights went out,
And I awoke and picked up where I left off, with no pout,
Pearl Harbour was rank with warfare, bullets flew all around,
And I don’t know how long I had laid there, but I was bound.
I was intent on opening the water-tight door, not allowed,
In battle conditions to be entered, but I managed proud,
I made my way to the turret to assist there, and one said,
“Boy, you’re a good boy Carson,” they just needed me red.
There was no panic down there or anything, but much water,
And smoke, and they don’t mix, and then a commander
Told me to come on deck and help, but we were at a loss,
The ship was beat, and we then had to abandon and toss.
But just before I did, I ran into a friend, crying and dying,
Burnt, skin dangling off his body, very openly just hanging,
So I took his arm, but there was nothing that I could do,
So he died later, and its bothered me all my life through.
So they gave the word “abandon ship” and so I stepped off,
Not knowing how badly I was hurt, so passed out, did turnoff,
I went down in the water and it was peaceful and nice,
And then I saw this bright light, but something saved me, ice.
I got back up to the water’s surface, but burning oil,
Surrounded me in a complete circle, but, no more toil,
The next thing I knew was somebody’s arm on mine,
Pulling me out the water, and then I knew I’d be fine.
I made it to Ford Island sick bay but saw another there,
Whose intestines were in his hands, holding them bare,
And who said to me “War sure is hell isn’t it, shipmate,”
So I replied and just got up and walked out, straight.
Dominique Green
Just Not C S Lewis Please!
C S Lewis can be said very much to be,
The pillar of the contemporary Christian church,
The light of the christian business professional,
A reply to that intellectual, academic bunch.
His writings are offered to persuade and guilt,
Camouflage the traditional, rigid fundamentalist line,
And the weight of credibility can drop your shoulders,
When you receive a book of his from a child divine.
So who is he, this mega man, this C S Lewis?
That he should be credible before he's read?
We all know him as the Chronicles of Narnia.
But as an Oxford lecturer he had an academic head,
He explained Christian thinking in his apologetics - discourses,
And also through his children's books, now films,
In which it is said the land of Narnia refers to heaven,
And that Aslan represents Christ, who’s in the hymns.
But I believe there's no such thing as divine magic,
And that metaphysics is highly questionable,
Because physics and science are all you need,
To think and explain reality's integral.
He suggested that contemplation upon your image,
Your status, relationships and social standing,
Take you into Aslan's land - divine thought,
Via the wardrobe which specifies what your branding.
But he admitted that your credibility does indeed matter,
When upholding the Christian faith and believing in god,
'Cos the professor in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,
Says that Lucy’s faith stands ‘cos she wasn’t normally odd.
Indeed, he validated the belief that god proffers,
A way to live, a goal, and a religious mindframe,
Just by resting on his laurels and contending,
That ‘cos god's a concept in our society, there's no shame.
And he did something very devious but intelligent for his time,
In that wonderful story, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,
When he proclaimed that god is essentially invisible,
‘Cos that meant belief comes first in that divine bleeder.
And in his works, writings and Christian apologetics,
In his essays like God in the Dock and in his radio talks,
He attributes righteousness as divine, calling morality god's,
As mythological tales and academic terms he stalks.
Basically, Lewis portrayed the Christian faith,
As with stature in its form, as believable without a doubt,
By contorting the Christian myth into a permanent truth,
Rather than exposing a societal mechanism with clout.
He claimed by his well known Argument from Desire,
That just because you may desire god's existence,
That means he’s there for you as external but reachable,
Able to relate to you, to pride and inspire you, no distance.
But just because you think and believe something is true,
From your family, society, from TV, or church or mag,
Doesn't mean the idea shares with you the law of gravity,
Or holds that sensible, all-embracing, stabilising life bag.
He also gave the ambitious Argument from Reason,
Which says that you should believe because you can,
‘Cos, he says, God's there as a concept within our scope,
So it is our moral prerogative to in god hope and not ban.
But this again just relies on god as a societal construct,
And not on logical proofs of rationality, maths and ethics,
As it beckons that we gel with a remote, distant body,
Who just gives free thought and introspection prosthetics.
He considers whether or not Jesus was a lunatic,
Because Jesus, he claims, called himself truly god,
Since in Mere Christianity, the pride of the evangelical,
He blames Jesus for the divine denotation, odd.
Odd because Jesus is today so widely known and famous,
So why would he have suffered historically from insanity?
Because that staring claim would have asylummed him,
And made him not popular, but an individual and a novelty.
In my view, whether Jesus existed or not doesn't matter,
But I know for sure that he never at all called himself god;
He was defensive, only replied by accepting the relationships,
Which were right there available to him from society's baud.
Talking to authority and legal structures sometimes requires,
You to interactively untangle the web of sociology which flows,
To foster understanding and bathe the people in appreciation,
For the sovereignty, the governmental hierarchy which knows.
And what's more, C S Lewis used the logical word induction,
To describe his choice, his decisive conversion to Christianity,
But I think he just meant he was being cultural and societal,
When he found joy, acceptance and instruction from divinity.
And I was mad as I was absolutely livid, and today still am,
Because I was angry about his primitive use of capitalization:
Instead of plainly describing the terms and posits of the faith,
He simply capitalised them, silently hoping for admiration.
I was told off when I was a young child in Primary One,
For using capital letters when I should have described,
The people, places and things that were of interest to me,
The questions that arose in my mind by my teacher imbibed.
He capitalises very important questions like Right and Wrong,
Later boldly augmenting them with 'Law of' and 'Rules of',
Then goes on capitalise Real Morality and the Moral Law,
Hoping that to god and to his followers you will belong.
Decent Behaviour and Law of Decent Behaviour,
Also exist as emphasised thus in his Mere Christianity book,
Along with Rule of Human Nature and Right Conduct -
I am ashamed of the church and perturbed when I look.
It also has the Law of Gravitation, Man and 'a Power',
A Director and Guide, Life-Force, Force, and Religious,
Heaven, Creative Evolution and Emergent Evolution,
And Churches and Person, all which exist to make you serious.
Two-thirds of the way through the book Mere Christianity,
He continues by capitalising things that are personal:
Myself, Pride, Dictatorship of Pride, and Kind of Chap,
And so only succeeds in emphasising the Evangelical!
He then attempts to connect the personal with god,
In his unafraid, barefaced capitalisation, now a spree,
Writing Something and Being also in capital letters,
Hoping that through Faith and Humility the reader will see.
There are still more capitalisations in Mere Christianity,
That apologetic that believers love as their honest pride,
I think his pride, self-conceit and ego must have been great,
To embrace capitals in such a spate and in such a tide.
I was definitely not impressed in any way by C S Lewis,
In my teenage years so contemplative, and still not now,
But found much pleasure in his childrens Narnian tales,
Which made deity describable, not unsaid but with a prow.
Before Lewis, I don’t feel Christians were admitting to,
Not really knowing or being unable to reduce and prove,
God's prerequisite existence and wouldn't ever discuss,
Faith with intellectuals, academics who dynamically move.
When you understand and realise that C S Lewis used,
Academic words like rationality, reason and induction,
By just augmenting them with the god and divinity,
You are then able to reject his works and publications.
Dominique Green
Evolution Not God
It is the case that there is no God,
He does not exist, he is not the one,
He’s not everyone’s invisible puppet,
It is not personal, he is not the Son.
Evolution is true, I know it inside myself:
We are all evolving into better people:
Everyday, month or year we change ourselves,
By the physical, the social or the psychological.
In a theory of imperfection and improvement,
Where creatures lived, died and struggled to survive,
The best emerged to mate in steady continuum,
With truth preservation being slowly contrived.
Gene survival was actively, brainily intended,
And it was not accident, random by any means:
Variation, identity and freedom were valued,
Through mating calls which selected the real scenes.
In a mix of random, cause and free by environment,
The most accepted plumages became the norm,
Where an individual’s image was treasured,
Through normalisation’s preliminary storms.
It made freaks normal by population,
Over time, by ubiquitous adaptation,
In courses set by random mutation,
Through small steps of incrementation.
All that occurred was by genetic drift,
Where lucky individuals left behind by chance,
Their genes, more, superior and better,
So as genetic makeup to enhance.
Variation was life’s mechanism and the way of life,
By successions of amenable chance,
Which encountered the permanent in time,
By having what was chosen in a first glance.
Partnership was indeed part of the whole process,
The chariot in which one was made special,
The origin of species was in the choosing,
Of a mate who may have been initially just a potential.
Tribal screams derided sometimes dying predators,
Who were not to have the hunter-gatherer life,
As they suffered violent subordination,
To the special, those king primates with a wife.
Muscles adapted to the relentless environment,
As an individual’s descendants were similarly strong:
A goat born with an abnormality, with no front legs,
Walked like a kangaroo, a hop-along.
The fossil record is indeed imperfect with gaps,
Because small changes in species may be just that;
And plants and animals are distributed geographically,
Because their context is also their hat.
Social Darwinists were quite invalid and wrong,
When they called the Great War societal purification;
Because we all have the freedom to interact,
In blind determination, and the war required such an action.
The danger with any good thing or theory,
Is that it can be overdone and parts overemphasised;
Evolution sweeps down with such immense comprehension of life,
That you may need corrected for deductions falsely theorised.
I have hardly ever been more understood or more met,
Than by Charles Darwin’s evolution theory, not a fallacy,
Because in it death and suffering are intrinsic to life,
By speciations mechanism that is primacy.
Evolution explained the ins and outs of life to me,
When I was thirteen and without my brother,
It explained death, love, partnership and suffering,
And it helped me inexplicably with my mother.
Evolution speaks of suffering and pain as interwoven,
In happiness, peace, industry and effort;
The theory helped me make decisions to prosper,
To use my brain, to speak and not retort.
Don't let superstition make you gullible,
To ideas that seem to be acceptable,
Because disbelief is a rational process,
From a lack of information about the probable.
Your partner is the one, your son is the Son:
Prayers are just feelings, thoughts and vents,
Which pertain to a non-existent, self-fulfilling carer,
That entertains ones own interests and events.
God does not exist at all in any form,
And we all the same and we are all born atheists;
It is people that pleasure us in whatever way,
And people that we bruise when we resist.
One cannot reason with the existence of God,
So the rational mind does proclaim and hiss;
A complex structure’s blocks are more complex,
Than its historical form, its original synthesis.
Something big is made from many smaller things:
A square is made from four lines;
God called indescribable and is a very complex entity,
So where did he come from, fermented wines?
We can only go on what has been said about God,
To describe that societal construct,
Which is crafted by those who are religious,
In a guilting, dehumanising and emotional act.
I am not a Christian because Jesus is dead:
And all religion is delusional and devious,
To presume that an omnipotent superiority,
Presides over the pleasant frivolous!
Billy Graham took advantage of people,
When they most needed to know,
About death, and why we lost so many,
In the wars so great and low.
You don't need God to accept a death,
You just need to grieve and remember,
Them, their memories and contributions,
And in this case, the freedom it was over.
Is a belief about growth and interactivity not better,
Than a faith in one creation design and decision,
To explain our development, achievements and advances,
Which occur incrementally by everyday determination?
Existentially we exist with desires and creativity,
And come under the many memes that society births;
And hope in relational, charging relativity,
And in people, in their various attributions of self-worth.
This relationality is special and built-in,
In fancies, desires, skirmishes and flights,
And we can have rationality and reason,
In the aspirations within our sights.
We intend because we were intended,
By life’s process of chance and selection;
One cannot explain why God exists,
But I can explain why I exist, by evolution.
Dominique Green
The Ocean
Vast, powerful motion of all time,
How many do you facilitate sublime?
To discover, protect and to ably fight,
By wood, to keep our territory right.
To race, enjoying the sea air of such waft,
And to fish for delicious bites from our nets cast;
Enjoying the freedoms of the Common Fisheries Policy,
Having livelihoods protected through areas of advocacy.
One of carbon and two of oxygen, water,
And of course with salt which does the liquid alter,
Also with sodium, magnesium, calcium and sulphate too,
Plus the ions potassium and chlorine which do.
You can't really drink it apart from a sip,
But seawater and its fish can be boiled for your lip;
Cod’s coming back as no more overfished,
So pollock does not anymore need to be wished.
Our first travels were made on the ocean wave,
Its captains gave respect and sensibly did behave;
We journeyed from England to America to make,
A life for ourselves which nobody was to brake.
It moves with power, and sometimes takes a life,
And hides oil that's dug through much toil and strife;
The global community needs to channel its energy,
For renewable sources to be designed with synergy.
Dominique Green
My Computer
I have from my computer,
A doorway to myself,
A way in to that spaghetti maze,
Just sat on the shelf.
I am disabled, Cerebral Palsy,
And that means I just can't write,
Poetry's just been in my head,
When I've not been able to type.
The screen jests with light,
Welcomes me in to portray,
Fights about morality,
Fights about the right way.
The keyboard offers what faith forbode,
Words that program and construct,
A way of living that’s acceptable,
One that's with your gut.
And the delete key was once my pride,
It let you say anything and make mistakes,
Fundamentalists say you must watch your words,
And about speech they have the shakes.
But now I'm into Wikipedia,
And WikiRational is even better,
Lets you in on the academia,
The glorious love letter.
They'll beat cancer, not god,
By rational inquiry through research,
They'll develop drugs which synthesise,
Treatments for good health.
My computer, and now my tablet,
Give me freedom of speech,
My childhood world deprived me of it,
Such that I'd always have to screech.
It is the colour that I want it to be,
White for the puritan’s yell,
It signs that I use it wisely,
For truth, for truth to tell.
It never commands me - I command it,
Control and function its modes,
And when I feel vulnerable and rejected,
Can program it with different codes.
Dominique Green
The Moral Point of Beauty and the Beast
Prince Adam was very selfish and lived in a large castle,
Rejected an old lady in need at his door as just a hassle,
Because he didn’t know that she had magic powers grand;
So she decided to change him into a beast as his remand.
He refused to accept her rose that she offered benign,
So her spell could only be reversed before it did sign,
That it was dead, that all its petals had dropped off,
That there was no more magic the change to shove.
So a beast then inhabited this castle with only the rose,
But the other condition of his reversal was to propose,
Was to learn to love another beyond himself, death,
Then the spell would return his more youthful breath.
Ten years passed, and all this Beast had and loved,
Were the objects around him, but they were beloved,
‘Cos they could speak, talk, and hoped he would find,
The courage to love, and let others in to be most kind.
In life, if you reject a good thing as bad disrespectfully,
It will return multiplied to retake its meaning arduously,
So the rose featured in Adams beastly life as a condition,
When he got a second chance at warmth’s constitution.
When you are lonely, and this beast was quite a gentleman,
The things in your room mean something to you, action,
Your objects seem kind in their motion of activity, selectivity,
They’re about your day and they’re only for you, propensity.
Anthropomorphism, when objects pertain to characteristics,
Of a human, an animal or a god, explodes here with antics,
And what you do as a criminal when alone in your house,
Will make you into more of a human, or a clim, or a mouse.
There was Lumière the candlestick, said he’s hospitable,
Cogsworth the clock, who decided on who’s irresponsible,
Mrs Pots the teapot, who could see what’s up with twirls,
And Chip the teacup who couldn’t cope with many girls.
A candlestick gives us light, would be bad without it,
And we must use the time as best we can, as we see fit;
Our teapot or beer barrels partly determine our success,
And a nice cup of tea with our girlfriend cleans our mess.
Belle, a villager, only had her father to love her as the best,
But a muscular hunter called Gaston wouldn’t cease or rest,
Until she promised to freely marry him, but she’s into books,
As she had her father’s, the librarian and inventor’s, looks.
Her father, sadly one day, he lost himself in the woods,
But asked for refuge from the Beast who had bad moods,
Who locked him up in the dungeon cold and inhumane,
Where he awaited rescue by his daughter, was in pain.
She set him free, but the deal was only his life for hers,
She was to live confined to the castle, with no mars,
But slowly, as the beast had a library, she fell in love,
With his ways, his inelegance and his dancing glove.
He even saved her life from a wolf pack hungry and evil,
And they related each day, conversing at the dinner table,
Until one day, jealous Gaston managed to kill and to end,
The life of the Beast, in a battle to be strong and penned.
So Prince Adam died as the Beast in Belle’s caring arms,
Who, before the rose had died, said that he had charms;
She said “I love you” to him, and after a moment or two,
He returned to life, but as the young man everyone knew.
Love defeats hate, anger and despair of any type,
When you let yourself just love one, they can fight,
To save you from hurt, dishonour and doing wrong,
To other people who have innocently come along.
Love is magic, love is always magic, and can suffice,
To let you love as of second nature when you’re ice;
It has no bounds, but most certainly can be defined,
And it is free, but it means that you will have dined.
Dominique Green
Science and Religion
Religion affects us in ways we wouldn't believe even if we were told about them well before we took part in it, and expressing its effects on our lives afterwards can be such a difficult task that we are often left using short phrases like "That was bad!" or "I really didn't like it!", which don't seem ever to sufficiently describe the true extent of our feelings. We seem secure in the truth we are told by teachers and media that there are so many gods that there is no god, and we leave it at that. When one religious section comes above another or makes a serious attempt at competing with our robust secular structures we simply say no to it without explaining why.
But I believe that Christian fundamentalism can't be tolerated any more, and must be met with atheistic rationality and secular reasoning because if we don't try to suppress religion then it will continue to hurt farm too many, just as the Islamic State is doing at the moment. Christian fundamentalism is, after all, just another form of fundamentalism. Many innocent bystanders are being hurt by it, it classifies the many as hell-bound, it belittles the efforts of the brave and assistive, and it continues to patronise science and medicine as secondary functions to god, or divinity. Furthermore, the Christian form of fundamentalism must be suppressed in order indeed to prohibited Islamic terrorism, which just comes from religious extremism.
Now is the time to speak out against religious fallacies and pretences, because all too often we simply leave the issues for another day, for another time and perhaps for another person, just ignoring religious structures and irritating Christian believers, which only leaves them to spread their message and steep in their own untouchable insanity levels. It's time to allow ourselves to become succinct at saying how we really feel about the church and its precepts in the hope of alleviating some of the pain it makes and causes, to its kids, to its past members and even to some of its very own propounders and leaders today. This would enable a more human-based climate to descend upon our land, with people values at the core of our society. There's only one humanity, only one way to live, and that's with a conscious human morality which extolls people values, scientific beliefs and medical practices.
But even though science and medicine are among humankind's best achievements, I need to say that religion is indeed at odds with science, most definitely fundamentalism, and those who try to merge the two in a theistic evolution fail miserably to understand that believing in two conflicting theories just results in a conflicted personality and troubled mind. You can't believe in both evolution and creationism at the same time because one depends upon and validates a rational, reasoned analysis of nature, life and physics and their capacities, upon a reasoned understanding of progress of humankind, whilst the other, creationism and Christianity, leans heavily on the irrational possibility of god's existence and creation act. We can use our minds and be rational about our origins and context and not just our lives, so as to appreciate them and make full sense of life, so we should be rational when inquiring into them to foster confidence.
To accept a diluted form of evolution theory and believe that evolution occurred but was interacted with by god in some manner along the way is fallacious, farcical and insidious, and fundamentalists often just try to save face by saying that they may believe in both creationism and evolution so as to slow down their rejection in order to delay their most certain definite extinction. They incorporate evolution into their theology in the hope of a credibility status: they consider it 'good for evangelism', and good for conversation.
However, morality never has popularity or marketing as a condition when referring to or defining it, since this would blur it and change the focus on the individual, thus reducing its value. Science and medicine need to be ramified as truly righteous and worth while and pronounced as functional practices in themselves - without divinity or god. We must believe in what exists, in the physical and the social, and what's real is scientific inquiry, medical findings, treatments and care, societal relativity, and social structures and relationships., People are real in the warmth and love of relationships by way of friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, shop assistants, businessmen or businesswomen and by way of health and medical professionals. You can see through evolution the steadfastness of humanity and family, and you can believe in evolution by realising that you are part of one structured who that flows with interactivity allowing individual creativity and passion. You can wholeheartedly if you want to, because it is a very beautiful thing to see and know about.
I read Darwin's The Origin of Species 15 times when I was in my early teens and believe in it wholeheartedly because it makes sence. The reason why it was thought, until recently with the public's acceptance of Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene in 1976, to be primarily about sex, was because Charles Darwin's readers were mostly church-oriented, and so the book received a steady backlash. The society that he was born into was one in which people said that individuals were on earth by god's comment rather than as a consequence of evolution through our parents: our ancestors and others of our animal predecessors. So Darwin was robbed by his culture of its identity because he incidentally hit out at religion which caused Christians and church-goers to over-react by claiming him to essentially have posited a sex-based theory of evolution.
Evolution theory today is becoming more and more behaviourally based as it is concerned with an individuals, or an organisms, development which is made through and by every day life, behaviour, activities and thought. An individuals responsiveness to the environment influences whether or not it becomes strong and survives to evolve into a new species (albeit by sex) via its offspring, which will inevitably be a higher life-form.
All people are of equal worth, and what you believe and do matters in life, for yourself, for other people, and for your descendants.
Please see Developmental Plasticity and Evolution by Mary Jane West-Eberhard (2003).
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From On The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, 6th Edition 1872:
"Some naturalists have maintained that all variations are connected with the act of sexual reproduction; but this is certainly an error; for I have given in another work a long list of "sporting plants;" as they are called by gardeners; that is, of plants which have suddenly produced a single bud with a new and sometimes widely different character from that of the other buds on the same plant." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 1 Causes of Variability)
"...we clearly see that the nature of the conditions is of subordinate importance in comparison with the nature of the organism in determining each particular form of variation; perhaps of not more importance than the nature of the spark, by which a mass of combust- ible matter is ignited, has in determining the nature of the flames." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 1 Causes of Variability)
"All such changes of structure, whether extremely slight or strongly marked, which appear among many individuals living together, may be considered as the in definite effects of the conditions of life on each individual organism" On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 1 Causes of Variability)
"...at whatever period of life a peculiarity first appears, it tends to reappear in the offspring at a corresponding age, though sometimes earlier." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 2 Effects Of Habit And Of The Use Or Disuse Of Parts; Correlated Variation; Inheritance
"If it could be shown that our domestic varieties manifested a strong tendency to reversion that is, to lose their acquired characters, while kept under the same conditions and while kept in a considerable body, so that free intercrossing might check, by blending together, any slight deviations in their structure, in such case, I grant that we could deduce nothing from domestic varieties in regard to species. But there is not a shadow of evidence in favour of this view: to assert that we could not breed our cart and race-horses, long and short-horned cattle, and poultry of various breeds, and esculent vegetables, for an unlimited number of generations, would be opposed to all experience." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 2 Effects Of Habit And Of The Use Or Disuse Of Parts; Correlated Variation; Inheritance
"May not those naturalists who, knowing far less of the laws of inheritance than does the breeder, and knowing no more than he does of the intermediate links in the long lines of descent, yet admit that many of our domestic races are descended from the same parents...may they not learn a lesson of caution, when they deride the idea of species in a state of nature being lineal descendants of other species?" On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 4 Breeds Of The Domestic Pigeon, Their Differences And Origin)
"One of the most remarkable features in our domesticated races is that we see in them adaptation, not indeed to the animal's or plant's own good, but to man's use or fancy...On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 5 Principles Of Selection Anciently Followed, And Their Effects)
"It is not that the varieties which differ largely in some one point do not differ at all in other points; this is hardly ever...I speak after careful observation...perhaps never, the case. The law of correlated variation, the importance of which should never be overlooked, will ensure some differences; but, as a general rule, it cannot be doubted that the continued selection of slight variations, either in the leaves, the flowers, or the fruit, will produce races differing from each other chiefly in these characters." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 5 Principles Of Selection Anciently Followed, And Their Effects)
"I have seen great surprise expressed in horticultural works at the wonderful skill of gardeners in having produced such splendid results from such poor materials; but the art has been simple, and, as far as the final result is concerned, has been followed almost unconsciously." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 1, Variation Under Domestication (Section 6 Unconscious Selection)
"We have also seen that it is the most flourishing or dominant species of the larger genera within each class which on an average yield the greatest number of varieties, and varieties, as we shall hereafter see, tend to become converted into new and distinct species. Thus the larger genera tend to become larger; and throughout nature the forms of life which are now dominant tend to become still more dominant by leaving many modified and dominant descendants. But, by steps hereafter to be explained, the larger genera also tend to break up into smaller genera. And thus, the forms of life throughout the universe become divided into groups subordinate to groups." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 2 Variation Under Nature (Chapter Summary)
"...when the males and females of any animal have the same general habits of life, but differ in structure, colour, or ornament, such differences have been mainly caused by sexual selection: that is, by individual males having had, in successive generations, some slight advantage over other males, in their weapons, means of defence, or charms; which they have transmitted to their male offspring alone. Yet, I would not wish to attribute all sexual differences to this agency: for we see in our domestic animals peculiarities arising and becoming attached to the male sex, which apparently have not been augmented through selection by man." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 2 Sexual Selection)
"Natural selection acts only by the preservation and accumulation of small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 3 Illustrations Of The Action Of Natural Selection, Or The Survival Of The Fittest
"Slow though the process of selection may be, if feeble man can do much by artificial selection, I can see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may have been effected in the long course of time through nature's power of selection, that is by the survival of the fittest." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 5 Circumstances Favourable For The Production Of New Forms Through Natural Selection)
"Owing to the high geometrical rate of increase of all organic beings, each area is already fully stocked with inhabitants, and it follows from this, that as the favoured forms increase in number, so, generally, will the less favoured decrease and become rare. Rarity, as geology tells us, is the precursor to extinction." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 6 Extinction Caused By Natural Selection
"In Yorkshire, it is historically known that the ancient black cattle were displaced by the long-horns, and that these "were swept away by the short-horns" (I quote the words of an agricultural writer) as if by some murderous pestilence." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 6 Extinction Caused By Natural Selection
"The truth of the principle that the greatest amount of life can be supported by great diversification of structure, is seen under many natural circumstances." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 7 Divergence Of Character)
"Although few of the most ancient species have left modified descendants, yet, at remote geological periods, the earth may have been almost as well peopled with species of many genera, families, orders and classes, as at the present day." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 4 Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest (Section 8 The Probable Effects Of The Action Of Natural Selection Through Divergence Of Character And Extinction, On The Descendants Of A Common Ancestor)
"From the facts alluded to in the first chapter, I think there can be no doubt that use in our domestic animals has strengthened and enlarged certain parts, and disuse diminished them; and that such modifications are inherited." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 5 Laws Of Variation (Section 2 Effects Of The Increased Use And Disuse Of Parts, As Controlled By Natural Selection)
"Habit is hereditary with plants, as in the period of flowering, in the time of sleep, in the amount of rain requisite for seeds to germinate." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 5 Laws Of Variation (Section 3 Acclimatisation)
"[Correlated variation] the whole organisation is so tied together, during its growth and development, that when slight variations in any one part occur and are accumulated through natural selection, other parts become modified." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 5 Laws Of Variation (Section 4 Correlated Variation)
"Whatever the cause may be of each slight difference between the offspring and their parents—and a cause for each must exist...we have reason to believe that it is the steady accumulation of beneficial differences which has given rise to all the more important modifications of structure in relation to the habits of each species." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 5 Laws Of Variation (Summary)
"...evidence of their former existence could be found only among fossil remains." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 6 Difficulties Of The Theory (2 On The Absence Or Rarity Of Transitional Varieties)
"...natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by the short and sure, though slow steps." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 6 Difficulties Of The Theory (6 Special Difficulties Of The Theory Of Natural Selection)
"Organs now of trifling importance have probably in some cases been of high importance to an early progenitor." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 6 Difficulties Of The Theory (7 Organs Of Little Apparent Importance, As Af- fected By Natural Selection
"The foregoing remarks lead me to say a few words on the protest lately made by some naturalists against the utilitarian doctrine that every detail of structure has been produced for the good of its possessor. They believe that many structures have been created for the sake of beauty, to delight man or the Creator (but this latter point is beyond the scope of scientific discussion), or for the sake of mere variety, a view already dis- cussed. Such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory. I fully admit that many structures are now of no direct use to their possessors, and may never have been of any use to their progenitors; but this does not prove that they were formed solely for beauty or variety…But a still more important consideration is that the chief part of the organisation of every living creature is due to inheritance; and consequently, though each being assuredly is well fitted for its place in nature, many structures have now no very close and direct relation to present habits of life." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 6 Difficulties Of The Theory (8 Utilitarian Doctrine, How Far True: Beauty, How Acquired)
"Hence, we may conclude that under domestication instincts have been acquired and natural instincts have been lost, partly by habit and partly by man selecting and accumulating, during successive generations, peculiar mental habits and actions, which at first appeared from what we must in our ignorance call an accident. In some cases compulsory habit alone has sufficed to produce inherited mental changes; in other cases compulsory habit has done nothing, and all has been the result of selection, pursued both methodically and unconsciously; but in most cases habit and selection have probably concurred." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 8 Instinct (Section 2 Inherited Changes Of Habit Or Instinct In Domesticated Animals)
"The view commonly entertained by naturalists is that species, when intercrossed, have been specially endowed with sterility, in order to prevent their confusion. This view certainly seems at first highly probable, for species living together could hardly have been kept distinct had they been capable of freely crossing. The subject is in many ways important for us, more especially as the sterility of species when first crossed, and that of their hybrid offspring, cannot have been acquired…by the preservation of successive profitable degrees of sterility. It is an incidental result of differences in the reproductive systems of the parent-species." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 9 Hybridism (Section 1)
"We can, I think, see why the geological formations of each region are almost invariably intermittent; that is, have not followed each other in close sequence." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 10 On The Imperfection Of The Geological Record (Section 3 On The Poorness Of Palaeontological Collections)
"The more ancient any form is, the more, as a general rule, it differs from living forms." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 11 On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings (Section 4 On The Affinities Of Extinct Species To Each Other, And To Living Forms)
"...if under a nearly similar climate the eocene inhabitants of the world could be put into competition with the existing inhabitants, the former would be beaten and exterminated by the latter, as would the secondary by the eocene, and the palaeozoic by the secondary forms. So that by this fundamental test of victory in the battle for life, as well as by the standard of the specialisation of organs, modern forms ought, on the theory of natural selection, to stand higher than ancient forms." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 11 On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings (Section 5 On The State Of Development Of Ancient Compared With Living Forms)
"On the theory of descent with modification, the great law of the long enduring, but not immutable, succession of the same types within the same areas, is at once explained; for the inhabitants of each quarter of the world will obviously tend to leave in that quarter, during the next succeeding period of time, closely allied though in some degree modified descendants." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 11 On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings (Section 6 On The Succession Of The Same Types Within The Same Areas, During The Later Tertiary Periods)
"I have attempted to show that the geological record is extremely imperfect; that only a small portion of the globe has been geologically explored with care; that only certain classes of organic beings have been largely preserved in a fossil state; that the number both of specimens and of species, preserved in our museums, is absolutely as nothing compared with the number of generations which must have passed away even during a single formation; that, owing to subsidence being almost necessary for the accumulation of deposits rich in fossil species of many kinds, and thick enough to outlast future degradation, great intervals of time must have elapsed between most of our successive formations; that there has probably been more extinction during the periods of subsidence, and more variation during the periods of elevation, and during the latter the re- cord will have been least perfectly kept; that each single formation has not been continuously deposited; that the duration of each formation is probably short compared with the average duration of specific forms; that migration has played an import- ant part in the first appearance of new forms in any one area and formation; that widely ranging species are those which have varied most frequently, and have oftenest given rise to new species; that varieties have at first been local; and lastly, although each species must have passed through numerous transitional stages, it is probable that the periods, during which each underwent modification, though many and long as measured by years, have been short in comparison with the periods during which each remained in an unchanged condition." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 11 On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings (Section 7 Summary)
"In considering the distribution of organic beings over the face of the globe, the first great fact which strikes us is, that neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions can be wholly accounted for by climatal and other physical conditions." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 1)
"...barriers of any kind, or obstacles to free migration, are related in a close and important manner to the differences between the productions of various regions.†On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 1)
"A third great fact, partly included in the foregoing statement, is the affinity of the productions of the same continent or of the same sea, though the species themselves are distinct at different points and stations." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 1)
"The bond is simply inheritance, that cause which alone, as far as we positively know, produces organisms quite like each other, or, as we see in the case of varieties, nearly alike." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 1)
"On almost bare land, with few or no destructive insects or birds living there, nearly every seed which chanced to arrive, if fitted for the climate, would germinate and survive." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 3 Means Of Dispersal)
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"These cases of close relationship in species either now or formerly inhabiting the seas on the eastern and western shores of North America, the Mediterranean and Japan, and the temperate lands of North America and Europe, are inexplicable on the theory of creation. We cannot maintain that such species have been created alike, in correspondence with the nearly similar physical conditions of the areas; for if we compare, for instance, certain parts of South America with parts of South Africa or Australia, we see countries closely similar in all their physical conditions, with their inhabitants utterly dissimilar." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 4 Dispersal During The Glacial Period)
"The various beings thus left stranded may be compared with savage races of man, driven up and surviving in the mountain fastnesses of almost every land, which serves as a record, full of interest to us, of the former inhabitants of the surrounding lowlands." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution (Section 5 Alternate Glacial Periods In The North And South)
"With respect to the absence of whole orders of animals on oceanic islands…as these animals and their spawn are immediately killed…by sea-water, there would be great difficulty in their transportal across the sea, and therefore we can see why they do not exist on strictly oceanic islands. But why, on the theory of creation, they should not have been created there, it would be very difficult to explain." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 13 Geographical Distribution - continued (Section 3 Absence Of Batrachians And Terrestrial Mammals On Oceanic Islands)
"The most striking and important fact for us is the affinity of the species which inhabit islands to those of the nearest mainland, without being actually the same." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 13 Geographical Distribution - continued (Section 4. On The Relations Of The Inhabitants Of Islands To Those Of The Nearest Mainland)
"...it is an almost universal rule that the endemic productions of islands are re- lated to those of the nearest continent, or of the nearest large island." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 13 Geographical Distribution - continued (Section 4. On The Relations Of The Inhabitants Of Islands To Those Of The Nearest Mainland)
"The relations just discussed - namely, lower organisms ranging more widely than the higher - some of the species of widely-ranging genera themselves ranging widely: such facts, as alpine, lacustrine, and marsh productions being generally related to those which live on the surrounding low lands and dry landsâ;the striking relationship between the inhabitants of islands and those of the nearest mainlandâ; the still closer relationship of the distinct inhabitants of the islands of the same archipelago - are inexplicable on the ordinary view of the independent creation of each species, but are explicable if we admit colonisation from the nearest or readiest source, together with the subsequent adaptation of the colonists to their new homes." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 13 Geographical Distribution - continued (Section 4. On The Relations Of The Inhabitants Of Islands To Those Of The Nearest Mainland)
"From the most remote period in the history of the world organic beings have been found to resemble each other in descending degrees, so that they can be classed in groups under groups. This classification is not arbitrary like the grouping of the stars in constellations." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 14 Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology - Embryology - Rudimentary Organs (Section 1 Classification)
"We can understand why a species or a group of species may depart from its allies, in several of its most important characteristics, and yet be safely classed with them. This may be safely done, and is often done, as long as a sufficient number of characters, let them be ever so unimportant, betrays the hidden bond of community of descent." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 14 Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology - Embryology - Rudimentary Organs (Section 1 Classification)
"...the leading facts in embryology, which are second to none in importance, are explained on the principle of variations in the many descendants from some one ancient progenitor, having appeared at a not very early period of life, and having been inherited at a corresponding period. Embryology rises greatly in interest, when we look at the embryo as a picture, more or less obscured, of the progenitor, either in its adult or larval state, of all the members of the same great class." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 14 Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology - Embryology - Rudimentary Organs (Section 5 Development And Embryology)
"An organ, serving for two purposes, may become rudimentary or utterly aborted for one, even the more important purpose, and remain perfectly efficient for the other.†On The Origin of Species, Chapter 14 Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology - Embryology - Rudimentary Organs (Section 6 Rudimentary, Atrophied, And Aborted Organs)
"As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts and improves the inhabitants of each country only in relation to their co-inhabitants." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 15 Recapitulation And Conclusion
"The extinction of species and of whole groups of species, which has played so conspicuous a part in the history of the organic world, almost inevitably follows from the principle of natural selection; for old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms." On The Origin of Species, Chapter 15 Recapitulation And Conclusion
"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
On The Origin of Species, Chapter 15 Recapitulation And Conclusion