On not caring about wildlife...

A recent post on Face Book on the "RSPB Birders" site criticised someone for trying to save a bird that was injured. 'Leave it to nature' was the advice. Don't interfere. 'Mother Nature doesn't care about individuals.'

I grew up with the myth that originally the world was lovely (Garden of Eden) and all creatures got on amicably with one another. The Fall of Man led to suffering and wickedness, but one day it will all be lovely again - lions laying down with lambs etc.

From this (somewhat shortened) summary of Judeao-Christian theology, I presumed that caring, kindness, love, empathy, a desire to relieve suffering and a duty to respect all God's creation were a given.

On discovering the heartlessness and ruthlessness of so-called 'Mother Nature' (I wouldn't want someone so totally disinterested in me for a mother - would you? really?) I became aware that this idyllic view of our historic origin was a fiction, a myth.

But - and this is the big BUT - if you accept that life is merciless and cares nothing about individuals' suffering, then how do you account for the fact that our species has evolved to show and praise the virtues of the great faiths - love, forgiveness, compassion, self-sacrifice etc. - none of which are natural.

If you want to hang on to a theistic faith you might say that we have been inspired to yearn for these through divine intervention.

But if you want to abandon all such metaphysical origins, you are left with a real mystery. All of the species that have gone before us have, almost always, only shown nothing like those virtues, except towards their own kind (which is a form of self-interest).

Humanity has made it its vocation almost to go against the flow of evolution and say "it does not have to be like this! - and we will build a different, better existence."

The venture has not been without its errors and deviations, but as a species-wide vision, it has been enormously successful.

From acts of enormous self-sacrifice by charities and individuals to bring relief and healing to the poor and sick, to the minute acts of mercy shown by a bird-lover to an injured fledgling, we have and continue to change the world.

Now some might argue that in fact this deviation from the disinterested laws of evolution has led to a species that has become a plague upon the planet and is in danger of destroying vast swathes of life, if not all of it. But if you want to argue that it is ethically wrong to interfere in the suffering of an injured bird, then you have to accept that you should not interfere in any naturally processes - including human illness and suffering.

(Not long ago a very sophisticated, disciplined and aesthetically creative modern European nation decided to follow that route. They made a right mess of everything and we soon put a stop to that nonsense!)

Or, alternatively, you might wonder at the fact that a soul-less universe has enabled the evolution of conscious life which has been able, from its own free will, to create virtuistic concepts that just simply did not exist before.

We now (mainly) farm livestock humanely, accepting the fact of our carnivorous inheritance, but deciding to remove, as far as possible, the unacceptable natural consequences of unnecessary suffering.

What an amazing and truly noble development!