{"id":3711,"date":"2015-02-12T11:25:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T17:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2015-02-12T16:54:27","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T22:54:27","slug":"was-darwin-wrong-happy-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pmaworks.com\/observations\/was-darwin-wrong-happy-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Darwin Wrong? Happy Valentine\u2019s Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Was Darwin wrong<\/strong>? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n

BUT FIRST CONSIDER THIS\u00a0 WARNING<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You and your staff may have an uninspected cultural bias that is toxic<\/strong> to you and your office and is negatively affecting your best efforts.\u00a0 This could be happening right now as you read this!<\/p>\n

\u00a0How could this be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, ingrained in our culture is the idea that to survive<\/strong>, we must compete and overcome others.\u00a0 It is a win-lose world: either I win and you lose, or you win and I lose.<\/p>\n

This idea had much support with the work of Charles Darwin.\u00a0 Darwin\u2019s<\/strong> perspective of evolution included the concept of survival of the fittest with a sort of \u201cdog eat dog\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

However, recent studies suggest this is not entirely the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen biologists look closely at nature<\/strong> they cannot help but notice cooperative partnerships that do not comfortably fit with the competitive struggle that is central to Darwinanin evolution.\u201d (Darwin’s Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection<\/span>, Frank Ryan)<\/p>\n

This theory of cooperation in evolution<\/strong> was actually put forth 50 years before Darwin, by a Frenchman by the name of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarack (1744 \u2013 1829), who established evolution as a scientific fact.<\/p>\n

According to Bruce Lipton<\/strong>, \u201cNot only did Lamarck present his theory fifty years before Darwin, he offered a much less harsh theory of the mechanisms of evolution. Lamarck\u2019s theory suggested that evolution was based upon an \u201cinstructive,\u201d cooperative interaction among organisms and their environment that enables life forms to survive and evolve in a dynamic world. (Biology of Belief<\/span>, page 11)<\/p>\n

But Lamarck\u2019s ideas, which also included what is now called epigenetics<\/strong>, were cast aside and rejected until recently. So, instead of seeing that organisms in nature evolve symbiotically and cooperatively, Darwin saw that: \u201cliving organisms are perpetually embroiled in a struggle for existence. For Darwin, struggle and violence are not only a part of animal (human) nature<\/em> but the principal \u201cforces\u201d behind evolution advancement.\u00a0 Darwin wrote of an inevitable \u201cstruggle for life\u201d and that evolution was driven by \u201cthe war of nature, from famine and death.\u201d (Bruce Lipton, PhD, Biology of Belief<\/span>) [my emphasis]<\/p>\n

The idea of \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d<\/strong>, obviously, is not very cooperative. In an office, it can create brooding jealously, competitive back stabbing, fear and defensiveness, and make us objectify our patients as \u201ccases\u201d and statistics. It can create at a division between us and our patients — between each other.<\/p>\n

I got to thinking about all of this as another Valentine\u2019s Day approached<\/strong>. As it turns out, Valentine\u2019s Day is observed all around the world and has been around for hundreds of years, even as early as 300 AD. And, it wasn\u2019t always about romantic love. One legend has it that:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 in order “to remind these men of their vows and God\u2019s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment”, giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians<\/span>, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine’s Day.\u201d (From Wikipedia)<\/p>\n

The Greeks had 4 different types of love<\/strong>:<\/p>\n