Ishmael Ch. 3 & 4

Because most of the text is in dialogue format and I’m used to Ishmael being a gorilla, I actually had an easier time reading chapters three and four and I’m getting a better feel for the book. The reading was short, however there was so much to get out of it.

At first, I could feel the tension and confusion the narrator was feeling when Ishmael kept asking him about a human’s idea of creation. I felt as if my own point of view was also being challenged and that what I thought was wrong. Last semester I took an evolution class that totally solidified my beliefs of the Earth’s formation, so when the narrator’s explanation almost perfectly matched up with how the course of my class went, I could see no plot holes. But what a totally self-centered idea to believe that we were supposed to be the caretakers of the Earth and that we are here to make it better!

The new bat collecting nectar 

Last class period we watched a TED talk with Michelle Ringle-Barrett about the “untamed nature” of our world which I think fits perfectly with these chapters (if you missed it or wanted to see it again, check it out here). In it, she talked about how a new species of bat was just discovered in the past decade. If new species are still being found today and creatures are still evolving, who’s to say the world is really “made for man”? Clearly the world’s creatures are not slowing their pace of diversification, so man isn’t necessarily the ideal or perfect species. And who’s to say what we have done since our culture exploded was right?

I’m not saying that humans developing culture lead to the damage of Earth or that it is even a bad thing, because culture definitely brings people together and is rich in itself. I guess the ultimate question I have after reading these chapters is when did we feel the need to be so possessive over the Earth?