The legacy of Darwin 3 - the earthworm and a lesson in humility

Darwin’s work was seized on by those people of his day who thought that science and reason could, and should, explain everything about life. But Darwin himself never thought that way. For him the world was a wonder.

We think back now to the great debates about science versus creation as if this was the primary issue of Darwin’s day, but these were actually a symptom of a deeper and longer struggle about whether faith had an important part to play in life anymore.

For the new thinkers of that time science was the future and faith was to be consigned to the private world. In their wake, technological innovation has abounded and an economic system has delivered massive material benefits to large parts of the world.

Yet such ‘materialist’ thinking has gone together with the measurement of wealth in terms of consumption in such a way as to rape the earth of its resources and systematically degrade human community. Human beings have taken on a Babel-like view of the world, saying to themselves ‘There is nothing that we cannot do’. The coming decades are going to force us to face our limitations.

Perhaps we need to study humility and recognise that living with purpose, living in community, living with hope, living with meaning, finding peace, and finding a proper relationship with the earth and its creatures, all demand an integrated life, where material and spiritual are different descriptions of one reality.

Perhaps we should take a lesson in humility from the earthworm and the service it renders to the soil. One man spent a serious part of his life studying the earthworm. He noticed how earthworms worked the soil, moving and refining about 15 tons of soil per acre per year and producing the fruitful humus layer at the surface.  He documented how ancient ruins were gradually buried as earthworms moved soil from below the ruins and placed it above. He even kept worms in his study in pots to monitor their behaviour. Now that man knew what was important. His name was Charles Darwin.

You can read Darwin’s writings on worms here

Your comments.

What will force us to face our limitations?

Will it only happen once New York is underwater?