Journal of Sacred Work

Vervet monkeys give alarm calls to warn fellow
monkeys of the presence of predators, even though in so doing, they
attract attention to themselves, increasing their personal chance of
being attacked (Okasha, 2003).
 

   Charles Darwin, the great father of evolution whose 200th birthday is being celebrated this week and who was born during the same 24 hours as Abraham Lincoln, is famous for positing the notion of "survival of the fittest." We, as animals, act primarily in our own self interest, he believed.
   But the animal world offers endless examples of altruistic behavior by animals, like that of the Vervet money referenced above. Why do animals, including those that are unrelated to each other, seek to be helpful when they have nothing to gain?
   Scientists, struggling to defend the core Darwinian hypothesis, are anxious to offer an array of reasons. Darwin himself was confused by animal altruism. Among his apologists are those who say that what appears to be "loving" behavior by animals is actually a function of group-based evolutionary theory. Animals act to protect others in their species for the very purpose of preserving their group.
   But closer examination suggests that "group selection" is a faulty hypothesis because such a gene could not survive over time.
   Although I accept the fundamentals of Darwin's theory of evolution, I don't know the scientific answer to the question of animal alturism. It simply appears to me that loving behavior is the positive energy of God in this world. If that energy force can travel through humans, why can't it travel through animals or plants or a page of music or the canvas bearing the painting of a nude?
   Gorillas have 24 chromosomes. Humans have 23. Can the difference of this one chromosome cause one species to experience Love while the other doesn't? I doubt it.
   More likely, God's Love exists in far more ways than scientists may understand. I see Love wherever beauty and truth thrive – whether in a caregiver, a flower, a sparrow, a monkey or a stanza of poetry.
   Our goal is not to question Love's existence or to doubt through what form it may appear. Our opportunity is to nurture Love wherever she may appear.
   What do you think?

Erie Chapman