Zen and the Evolution of Man.

        First let’s stop the debate concerning evidence that man has evolved in the past. All those who still think evolution is a theory generated by the devil to corrupt the minds of man please pay attention.

        Let’s start with goose bumps. We modern humans get goose bumps when we are cold, frightened, angry, or in awe. Now lots of other creatures you know get goose bumps such as cats, dogs and porky pines. These animals have hair and quills and when they get cold the rising hair traps air between the hairs and skin, creating insulation and warmth. In response to fear, goose bumps make an animal appear larger like a puffer fish this is intended to scare away the enemy. Now you, unless you’re very, very hairy, have little use for goose bumps, But there they are, a simple sign that you have evolved.
         Then there is that kid in class that always made everyone laugh by wiggling his or her ears. They are using the Auriculars muscles or extrinsic ear muscles used by some animals to swivel and manipulate their ears (independently of their head) in order to focus their hearing on particular sounds. Watch your cat use them when it is hunting a bird or mouse. We still have them but they are so weak now that their only use is to entertain children during class when the teacher isn’t looking.
          Next time you get a chance take a look at an x-ray of your coccyx that my friend is the remnant of what was once a human tail. Then ask your doctor if this new healthy diet you are on will help you revolve your appendix, an organ once used to help digest the leaves of trees. If your nerd friend is having trouble finding a girl friend suggest he work and try to redevelop his Jacobson’s organ. This organ is in the nose and it is a special “smell” organ which detects pheromones (the chemical that triggers sexual desire, alarm, or about food trails). It is this organ that allows some animals to track others for sex and to know of potential dangers. Humans are born with the Jacobson’s organ, but in early development its abilities dwindle to a point that it is useless.
         For some time scientist believed that modern man evolved until about 100,000 years ago and then was thought to have stopped evolving. Evolution since that time, it was claimed, has been "cultural and social evolution." Biological evolution was thought to be  unknown among humans in historical times.
          In 2005 University Of Chicago researchers found that the human brain is still Evolving. (See Science Daily Sep. 9, 2005). Two independent research projects have shown that there are at least two genes microcephalin and ASPM have been demonstrating a pattern of evolutionary variation and change in modern man.

“In the two Science papers, the researchers looked at variations of microcephalin and ASPM within modern humans. They found evidence that the two genes have continued to evolve. For each gene, one class of variants has arisen recently and has been spreading rapidly because it is favored by selection. For microcephalin, the new variant class emerged about 37,000 years ago and now shows up in about 70 percent of present-day humans. For ASPM, the new variant class arose about 5,800 years ago and now shows up in approximately 30 percent of today's humans. These time windows are extraordinarily short in evolutionary terms, indicating that the new variants were subject to very intense selection pressure that drove up their frequencies in a very brief period of time--both well after the emergence of modern humans about 200,000 years ago.
      Each variant emerged around the same time as the advent of "cultural" behaviors. The microcephalin variant appears along with the emergence of such traits as art and music, religious practices, and sophisticated tool-making techniques--which date back to about 50,000 years ago. The ASPM variant coincides with the oldest-known civilization, Mesopotamia, which dates back to 7000 BC. "Microcephalin," the authors wrote in one of the papers, "has continued its trend of adaptive evolution beyond the emergence of anatomically modern humans. If selection indeed acted on a brain-related phenotype, there could be several possibilities, including brain size, cognition, personality, motor control or susceptibility to neurological/psychiatric diseases...The next step is to find out what biological difference imparted by this genetic difference causes selection to favor that variation over the others," Lahn said. Both microcephalin and ASPM have numerous genetic variations. The author’s show that certain variants are subject to very strong positive selection over others:”

(See: University Of Chicago Researchers Find Human Brain Still Evolving – Science Daily (Sep. 9, 2005))


      Now just because the human brain may be evolving right before our eyes doesn’t necessarily mean this is a change in our intelligence.
      “Lahn said.”We've evolved genes for selfishness, violence, cruelty--all of which are in place because they may make survival easier. But in today's society, they're certainly not condoned."
     Same article as above...

     But it is clear that our evolutionary development has created more than just a tendency for negative feelings and emotions. New evidence seems to show our evolution has including the development of compassion. Further that meditation, contemplation and practices such as Zen are reflected in the physiology of our brains.
      A new Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education has been launched at the Stanford University School of Medicine, with the aim of doing scientific research on the neural underpinnings of these thoughts and feelings. Science has been researching the effect mediation has on the brain. Recent brain-imaging studies have demonstrated a burst of activity in an area of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens when these practitioners think compassionate thoughts. The center is also examining individuals' response to the suffering of others, which can be either disgust or recognition of another's suffering, followed by empathy and a desire to take action (this is signaled by activation of the prefrontal cortex, the seat of initiation of motor movement).

            Now the dirty little secret of all evolutionary change is that it begins with a single individual. It only becomes a group effect when that trait spreads from that individual across the population base. So the real key to our future may be said to reside in every person that is born.

                In the practice of compassion you may hold the genetic future of us all. We are all a part of the genetic stream of the human animal and each person who finds himself or herself accepting the necessity to care, love and be a bodhisattva is generating a evolutionary environment in which those traits are creating genetic pressure in our species for natural selection in that direction.

So go forth my Buddhist friends and help those other apes evolve.