From Nothing to Irony

Dear Mr. President:

In the Beginning there was nothing. So, how *did* we begin? The religion you subscribe to has some specific things to say on this topic; but Science tells us we began in an ocean of goo waiting for the right moment to spark life. Abiogenesis: life from non-life. Something that paradoxically can only occur in an environment devoid of life. When there is absolutely no life, the extreme rarity of life can be generated without the fear of being gobbled up by something bigger. You see, the life that abiogenesis creates is not Adam and Eve, but microorganisms that change and evolve into more and more complex life forms until eventually they deem it necessary to slough out of the muck and suck in oxygen from the atmosphere itself.

Perhaps it had consumed too much of the oxygen in the swampy ocean and had to find another source. Isn't that what life's main purpose is? To consume? Well, most people nowadays refer to how it was "back in the day" as "surviving". The life-form who got enough food, who procured adequate shelter, it persevered to the point where it is obese and has several houses around the world. At what point in our evolution did "hoarding of all resources" take over "survival of self and species"? Or did it take over at all? Is this simply a manifestation of our innate desire to acquire everything? Is this what life is at its worst? Consume until your resources are dry and then move on. Repeat as often as needed. (Until supplies last, cannot be combined with any other offer.) When we run out of resources some speculate we will have to find ways to survive in the oceans again. How beautifully ironic that is!

You must be wondering by now (well, at least the staffer in charge of slogging through these emails must be wondering), so what? And if you are a follower of my emails (which pretty much excludes any resident - temporary or otherwise --of the White House), you may be wondering what all of this has to do with the war in Iraq? Well, there are a great number of historians and theologians who believe that Eden was located in what is now known as Iraq. There are also environmentalists and liberals and some rather sane individuals who believe that this war in Iraq is about oil (something we Americans are quite adept at consuming). So, the irony of fighting for resources in the place where your bible claims is the origin of species is not lost on me. I simply wanted to point it out in case it had been lost on you.

We are fighting the "evolution or creation" fight in gorey detail in the deserts and cities of Iraq. Did it occur to you that reclaiming Eden would look good on your religious resume? Does "survival of the species" mean to you that only the ones that agree with you can survive? Darwin's theory of evolution implies that only the traits that help perpetuate the species will survive. How can that possibly be true when our brave men and women in the armed services are dying every day in this war and politicians like you are safe in Washington DC? The outlook of the human species doesn't look good when those with one set of genes can send those with another set off to their deaths. Are you playing God, Mr. President? Or just playing Darwin?