tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post6824848777569950102..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: James Rebanks, the Modern ArcadianJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-86928397697099596562017-03-13T22:33:46.740-04:002017-03-13T22:33:46.740-04:00"The lives of traditional shepherds are appea...<i>"The lives of traditional shepherds are appealing to us, I believe, because they are much closer to the challenges we evolved to face. Much more like the lives we were meant to lead."</i><br /><br />Two major problems here.<br /><br />First, evolution has no intent. It cannot <i>possibly</i> have intent, because it is an unfeeling and indiscriminate force of nature. Our evolutionary path does not convey meaning on our lives, and we were never "meant" to be anything because of how we evolved. Our development was random and arbitrary, and cannot be said to "mean" anything, or to have been intented in any way.<br /><br />Second, we <i>did</i> not evolve to become shepherds. Evolution shaped us to be hunters and gatherers - not to practice animal husbandry (nor to practice farming, a behavior similarly romanticized by later generations as "pastoral", "natural", and how we were "meant" to live.)<br /><br />If you want to speak poetically and argue that evolution "meant" for us to be a certain way, then we are "meant" to be nomads constantly hunting and following wild game, and foraging wild plants.<br /><br />We are not "meant" to live in any one place for extended periods of time; we are not "meant" to raise crops; we are not "meant" to domesticate animals; we are not "meant" to build structures; we are not "meant" to possess spoken language; we are not "meant" to have specialization of labor; we are not "meant" to have technology of any kind, including creating fire and shaping wheels.<br /><br />Simply put, you can't have any degree of civilization and still live as evolution "intended" us to.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com