"
In the beginning, God inhaled and created all of life. This is the
Hindu creation
myth. They have the same word for
breath and
spirit, as did the
ancient Greeks. Over the years, I've realized that my brother is basically writing his own
creation myth, although it's couched in
evolutionary terms, since he's a
vertebrate morphologist and studies the evolution of breathing. His basic premise is that the
form and
function of an animal, its
morphology, will develop around its
pulmonary system. All his tests and experiments with
lizards,
fish,
birds and
dogs rest on the underlying theory that the
lungs and the
pulmonary system always change and evolve toward increasing
stamina and
endurance; that is, the better the animal moves, the better it can find food and avoid becoming food for others. Always, the changes are driven by the need for more
breath, and, to be
metaphysical, more
spirit or
soul."
From "Running After Antelope"
Scott Carrier
I recently heard a visiting professor from Georgetown give a lecture on the compatibility of creationism vs. evolution. It doesn't really matter what his position was; but, personally I thought the lecture was a bunch of shit. However, I read the passage above last night, and it seemed so beautiful to me. (This, I guess proves that a good writer beats a certain kind of academic any day.)