The Ultimate Truth

Around 500 years ago the whole religious world was shaken by one man. He almost single handedly disproved the theory that earth was the center of the universe. He proved that not only earth is NOT the center of universe, it is not even the center of our world (the solar system). And the sun around which the earth revolves is one of billions and billions of such stars neither the biggest, nor the smallest, but yet another neighborhood star. This man, Copernicus, showed us that earth was a humble abode with nothing special. This made life of most religious leaders difficult as they had now to answer the question why God chose earth for creating life. They reacted by abandoning Copernicus and jailing anybody who supported this theory. While the proofs against the earth-centric theory mounted, these leaders went into denial. Finally, 500 years after the first discovery, the Pope accepted that the church was wrong. Just in time. The same church was already involved in another denial. This time involving a 150 year old theory of evolution.

Did humans (or life in general) just spring into existence? Or did somebody create them? These were the only 2 alternatives on the table when a third alternative was proposed. This time, the earth shattering theory was provided by Charles Darwin in his book 'The Origin of Species'. According to Darwin, life as we see today has evolved from very humble origins of single celled organism. Every time there is evolutionary pressure, species develop traits to counter the pressure. That explains the speed of Cheetah, the power of the lion, the echolocation of the Bats and the direction sense of migratory birds.

Also, according to this theory, humans are yet another animal in the path of evolution. As Copernicus disproved the Earth-centric theory, Charles Darwin dis-proved the Human-centric theory. This puts lots of religions into a hard place as this gives God lesser and lesser space for maneuver. As God did not create life, he is unlikely to be guiding force in our life either.

Then came along Richard Dawkins, and his The Selfish Gene.This is a relatively new theory, published in 1976, and hence not yet dissected as thoroughly as the other two theories mentioned previously. This theory is a gene centered view of evolution, a theory in which gene is both the cause and the end result of the evolution.

This theory reduced the 'Humble Human' as proposed by theory of evolution into a 'Remote Controlled Humble Human', where humans (and for that matter every other organism) is existing only to defend the genes in us.

The gene which are part of our DNA is store house of data, it governs indirectly what we are, what we do and how much we succeed. The mechanism through which gene influences the physical and mental development is state of art involving 8 levels of translations. The data is flawlessly copied from DNA into RNA, RNA is translated into proteins and proteins influence the embryonic (and latter) development.

This gene is also passed near flawlessly from parents into offsprings. I say near flawlessly because sometimes copying errors occur, and when they occur, they occur in random directions. These copying errors are then passed on to the offsprings. In most cases the copying errors make the offspring worse off than rest of 'normal' beings. These errors are quickly relegated to history. However in few cases, the offspring is better than the normal beings. And in this case the gene spreads through the society like wild fire (on evolutionary scale) and in a few generations it ends up being a trait of the organism.

Consider a 2 set of genes, 1 of a predator, and another of its prey. Assume that under the current conditions both are capable of producing a predator which can kill the prey (sometimes) and a prey which can outrun the predator (other times). These genes are in perfect harmony and can live forever without any need of evolution. However consider the case where a predator develops a mutation which makes it faster than the rest and hence can catch more prey. This makes the predator successful and this gene spreads around. Within a few generations most of the predators can outrun the prey. However this brings evolutionary pressure on the prey whose genes may evolve into having longer legs for running faster. Since this mutant prey is more likely to outrun the evolved predator, it (and its desendents) are more likely to survive and hence soon the equilibrium is reached where both predator and prey can survive. As you can see, in this race both the predators and prey are mortal while the genes is the one which is eternal. This is a race between different genes to adapt and survive.

But in this race of gene survival, where do we come into picture? Well, here comes the truth. We are nothing but a survival machines for these genes. There are various genes who have developed different mechanisms to destroy other genes. And we are the defensive (and offensive) response. As the attacks got more and more sophisticated, the survival machines got more and more complex. First just a protective shell around the gene was enough. But then, when a gene developed a mechanism for breaking through this protective barrier, a more complex multi-cell defense must have emerged. This process continued which resulted in the complex and perfected survival machines we see around in the form of birds, animals, insects and bacterias. And the truth is that Humans are nothing more than a highly perfected survival machine. Nothing more and nothing less.

Now is there a place for a God in this explaination? Is there a place for Atma (soul)? For Re-birth? And for the end-less cycles of birth and death? You decide.

P.S: The genes which have formed humans have perfected the machine so much that the machine itself is threatening to exterminate the genes itself. Humans have become suicide bombers determined to destroy themselves along with the enemies controlling them.

Normative References:
[1] Wikipedia: For many things
[2] The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
[3] Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

Informative Reference:
[4] The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins