As humans, we need to have sense in our lives but at the same time have meaning. We are constantly questioning: Why are we here? What happens next? What happens next? I feel the only way to survive in this world is to believe there is something bigger, some purpose more important than a survival of the fittest.

Something bigger?

As humans, we want and need a creation story, be it legend, lore, or Biblical. We want to know our place and we want to know our purpose. We are reasoning beings and thus see ourselves as part of something bigger, as the product of something other than mere “genetic explanations for human behavior” (Olasky and Perry, 265). Humans feel a stronger connection, an “assertion of some sense of identity between man and nature” (Bump, 271). Rachel questions whether animals can feel emotion or depth. I believe this is a small part of the question. What seems to make us human and different is our spiritual capabilities. Garrison says some higher power must have been at work: “I find it hard to imagine that God, or whatever omnipotent being exists, would not have a certain say in its creation.” Was the world merely left to its own devices, or has some higher power played a role in its development?

Creation Story

I do not reject the theory of evolution; it only makes sense that we are all interconnected through history and through time to every living being around us. As a reasoning being, this theory cannot be dismissed in favor of a simple creation story. But was the entire process a mere domino effect? A process of pure survival—the need to eat, reproduce, nothing more? The article “Darwin Under Attack” notes “intelligent design postulates that the universe is too complex to have been created by change mutations and evolution,” (259). I agree with Megan S.’s discussion where she says “Through the development of our culture, we as humans are able to move beyond a basic struggle to survive and can find purpose and meaning in other areas of our lives.” Today we don’t simply exist to survive. We have problems to solve in our present situation and for the future. Thus we need an answer beyond the statement that “God created the world” and beyond “everything evolved.” Perhaps meshing the two is the only way we can be satisfied.

Survival of the fittest?

We must be able to filter extreme creationism and extreme evolutionism into something more compatible, understandable, and sensible. Tennyson says he “can but trust that good shall fall,” (251) that we may make a positive impact on the world’s future rather than dwelling on its past.