Man And His Environment

Have you ever wondered which has a greater influence on man; his environment or his biology? Does his genes dictate the physical shape of his features or does it rely on his environment? Does man create his society or does his society create him? It can be very difficult to distinctly outline the more Influential between man’s individuality and the way he asserts himself socially, and the way his society controls him. In this piece, I not only affirm that man’s society does have more power to over him, I insist that the society or his environment wields the only power over him. Nothing else dictates how a man’s life turns out aside his environment, and if a man wishes to change himself he would first have to, either physically or mentally, change his environment. 

Most times when we think about the origin of things, we place matter before life. Matter started before life did, yes? May be not. Only a few people ever think that life may have begun before matter started. After all, matter needs life to come alive, but life does not necessarily require matter to exist. Life as we know it expresses itself through matter, but perhaps this is not the only way it reveals itself? Perhaps it is the only way we can perceive it but is there a chance that it is not the only manner it expresses itself? If it is true that life comes before matter, then what determines the features it possesses in its matter? Would it not be the environment surrounding matter?

A key part of Charles’ Darwin theory of evolution is survival. In his theory, Darwin postulates that life evolves through natural selection. Natural selection is when certain genes and features within life naturally chooses to select themselves because they are more favourable than other genes and features. Herbert Spencer created the phrase ‘Survival of the fittest’ after reading Darwin’s work on evolution in order to describe Natural selection. Fit features or aspects replaces unfit features or aspects. It’s just they way life works. For instance, it is generally perceived that women prefer to be with a tall man than with a short man. The more tall men are picked over short men, the greater the chances of short men going extinct. Only tall men get to reproduce and tall men only give birth to tall men. You can’t give birth to what you are not. This is a rough example of how life takes away the unfit feature, which in this case would be short men (no diss to any short man). There are many many examples of this phenomenon in life, from the most fit sperm cell being the one, out of billions of other sperm cells, to fertilize the egg to the extinction of a whole specie of living things because they become ‘unfit’. It basically is an example of Microcosm and macrocosm because as it goes on within, it also occurs without. If this is true - that every living thing would shed off its unfit features somehow someway, and that it’s growth is depended on this, what then determines what is fit and unfit? 

A predominant attribute of life is movement. Anything that is alive expresses its life through vibrancy and movement, which in turn makes it susceptible to change. So everything in the universe, because it moves, changes, including our environment and our society. It is this change man struggles to adapt to. Everything survival entails involves adapting to the constant change of society and environment. This is what builds our challenges and obstacles. We go through pain because our environment changes and when it does, we feel discomfort. To stop being in pain, we have to find a way to adapt, and to find a way to adapt, we have to shed off the unfit part of us. This is basically how the Universe grows. Just as we shed off dead and unfit cells, so also does the Universe shed off its unfit aspects, whether it is taking out a weak dying star and replacing with another or taking out a weak dying man and replacing it with another. It is a constant cycle that would never ever stop. Our environment, whether in respect to its physical attributes or social features is always changing and we are meant to adapt with this change. This is a key feature of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus’ parables, especially The Parable of The Virgins and The Parable of The Talents discusses a set of people being cut off because they had traits that made them unfit. These were parables he used to describe what the kingdom of God would be like. 

Now that we know the connection between man’s survival and the environment, and we have realized how much the environment’s changes influences man’s desire for growth, let us also explore how the environment influences his biology. I was reading about rare cases of mutations in humans and then I came across certain defects that just seem ‘unnatural’. But in reality, there would be nothing that exists in this world that is unnatural, because of it was life won’t find expression in its matter. We humans feel too entitled so much that we decide we are the sole guardian of what is natural or not. Yes, a lot of this may have derailed from the path of what we know as normalcy and that’s okay, but it does not mean in anyway that they are unnatural. This whole idea of the survival of the fittest and natural selection is not a bad thing, neither is it a good thing. It is just a thing; a Universal principle that respects nothing but itself. It does not care about our whims and desires. We are the ones that are meant to show it our respect.

Due to the fact that the environment is always changing, it produces features in living things that are potentially fit to survive in its conditions. Does not matter whether the environment is a good one or bad one, it would produce features that have the potential to survive. In angiogenesis, cancer cells are born by mutations and grow quickly into tumors. They find a way to enter blood streams and spread so quickly to other parts of the body. But why are they there in the first place? Because the body has created an environment where they can live - exposure to environmental toxins like carbon monoxide and oxidants - and so they live and thrive, fully fit. Your healthy cells become the unfit ones and they are taken out for the more fit, which unfortunately are the cancer cells. As it happens within, so does it happen without. And so a country with a chaotic environment like Nigeria produces people who are chaotic as well. Corruption and deception has become the fit trait to be able to adapt to the chaotic state of the country, and if you are not corrupt, you are unfit. You would die out for the corrupt ones to continue to live. Simple as that! 

This is why heaven and hell cannot exist: an environment creates features that have the potential of adapting to support growth of life. As time progresses, the unfit ones are shed off, the fit ones are encouraged to grow. Life progresses, which is the most important thing, not you or your genes, but life, and it does so with our without you. Hell would produce life that would eventually learn how to adapt to it, and so the concept of eternal damnation is not possible. Heaven would create life that would adapt to it, but it also works the other way. It would create features that would be unfit as well, So a world without pain is totally impractical. 

So what is the solution? 

Saying that there should be a solution in the first place means we are implying that it is a problem. It can be a problem depending on the environment, but it isn’t a problem in and of itself. We may not be able to control our environment but we can harness its growth for our own purpose. 

First of all we would need to accept it. This is the way life works. It won’t change. At least not anytime soon. We can fight against it all our life, hoping and desiring some kind of eternal happiness that does not exist, or we can settle for what we have and find peace with it. 

Secondly, I would recommend the teaching of Jesus here:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”

The narrow gate can only accommodate one person, and that’s you alone. The wide gate can accommodate more than one person, that’s you and your society/environment. According to the second law of Thermodynamics, Chaos increases with time. If you enter the ‘wide gate’, you are not focused on getting self-aware. Instead you would be focused on fitting in and conforming into the environment or society. But you can’t fit in or conform to something that is always changing, can you? With the second law of thermodynamics in play, the environment would grow chaotic as time goes. Without knowledge of yourself, how do you intend to play your part? You would inherit its chaos like cancerous cells turn other healthy cells into cancerous cells. However if you go through the ‘narrow gate’, armed with self-awareness, you are able to harness the changes within your environment for your own good, no matter how chaotic it gets. The more chaotic it is, the shorter you might live, but eventually you would realize that it is not the amount of years in the life but the amount of life in the years. Jesus is said to have lived for only 33 years because his environment was very chaotic but he is one of the most influential figures twenty decades later.