THE GREAT GAP

I vacillate between the idea that humans are glorious god-like beings and the idea that we are just another species of bugs in the rug. The main reason for the vacillation is the huge disparity between man's potential and his actuality:

He talks about the sanctity of human life but despite not knowing when life begins, he destroys millions of fetuses annually rather than giving birth to them and putting them up for adoption;

He has the unique power to choose the course of his life yet very often chooses not to choose, blindly following the choices of others;

He studies calculus and trigonometry and other subjects he will almost never use and fails to study the nature of his own species, logical thinking and other subjects he needs to know and use;

He professes to value longevity but pays only modest attention to nutrition, exercise, avoidance of stress amd other matters that would extend his life;

He is physically weaker than virtually all other living species;

He claims to have a soul but pays virtually no attention to it;

He believes in benevolence and compassion and nonjudgmentality yet angers easily and intensely and often violently;

He argues he is not racist yet condoned slavery for most of his existence;

He claims to be civilized but robs, rapes and murders with ever increasing frequency and the country acclaimed as one of the most civilized at the time sought to annihilate a race, at which it was 50% successful;

He claims to love freedom yet enacts law after law which forcefully denies the freedom of his neighbors and of himself;

He decries the brutal treatment of animals yet unnecessarily kills billions of them each year and eats them with relish, or cuts off their heads and hangs them over the fireplace to extol his manness;

He proudly boasts of his intelligence yet turns to mystical unknowable faith to make decisions on some of the most important issues in his life;

He denounces those who act in their self interest but personal gain and happiness motivate every action he takes;

He is capable of achieving self esteem but is easily thwarted by feelings of inadequacy, self doubt and guilt.

Humans are the only species that does not live in accordance with its nature and does not live to its potential. As the gap between its glorious potential and the reality of its existence widens, the forces of evolution may place its survival in jeopardy.

Strange manner of species, indeed.