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A colleague asked me if I believe humans evolved from apes or if a “supreme being” created humans in their current form. I was surprised by this question, as I assumed the evidence supporting evolution was pretty strong and obvious. From Darwin’s studies and publication of “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, it was clear that adaptation was a vital part of how species survive.  We often hear people misinterpret Darwin by believing that “survival of the fittest” means physical fitness or brute strength.  What Darwin was really talking about was “life fitness”.

Life fitness is the ability to accurately assess your situation and adjust or adapt your capacities to match the environment.  Whether it is the physical environment (life or death survival) or cultural environment (social and emotional survival), as humans, we need to be able to understand our position in any given situation.  To do this, we need to be able to see the world as it really is and not a world of “illusion”. It is quite uncomfortable for many of us to want to clearly see what is going on let alone strive for it.  We opt for “comfort” and “positivity” rather than striving for truth.  We deny or pretend it can’t really be as bad as it is, and choose to ignore humanity’s failures or remain willfully ignorant of them – genocide, fraud, corruption, infatuation with celebrities or heroes, schooling designed to control our thinking and lives.  The rise of “positive psychology” has been a response to our need to feel good. Television and media catering to the “mindless” has been a response to our laziness and need for “escaping responsibility”.  Both these tendencies cost us the ability to see the truth.  So until we face the truth, we have no capacity to adapt in wise ways.

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