We are all connected to what has been and what is. We are connected to life on earth. We are human, but we are animal. We are part of a system of nature.

Evolution as an interconnection of life

There is unity and interconnectedness in all life. Where this connection began is still being speculated. Some, like Darwin, see evolution as the link. In Genesis, the biblical story of our beginnings lies in the hands of a creator. I personally believe in a mixture of both. Though Genesis cannot be taken completely literally, it does provide a starting point for the origins of the world. However, the sequence of events that led to modern day inevitably must have occurred through evolution. Nevertheless, we as humans, as thinking, reasoning, animals, need an answer. We need a creation story. We need a solid history of the earth.

Though we believe we as humans are distinct from the animal world, we are not. We are part animal. We may even be of the same spirit as the earth, or as Jung would say, the same collective unconscious. The Bible itself says, “from dust you are made and to dust you shall return,” (Genesis 3:19). Eventually, “left undisturbed for a long time…the molecules of the animal are slowly replaced, one by one, with minerals,” (224). Thus we shall inevitably become part of the earth. All we will leave behind are our fossils. As Eisley says, “we are linked forever to lost beaches whose sands have long since hardened into stone,” (229). We have no choice but to be connected to the land and to the natural world.

“the lost beaches whose sands have long since hardened into stone”