QuoteProject
Ever since Darwin, we've been familiar with the stupendous timespans of the evolutionary past. But most people still somehow think we humans are necessarily the culmination of the evolutionary tree. No astronomer could believe this.
Martin Rees
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote challenges the perception that humans are the ultimate outcome of evolution, highlighting our relative position in the vast timeline of life.

Martin Rees suggests that while we have learned about the immense timescales involved in evolution since Darwin, many still incorrectly view humanity as the end goal of this process. He emphasizes that a true understanding of evolution recognizes our place as one species among many, without any inherent superiority, which aligns with the views of astronomers who understand the expansive complexities of the universe and life within it.

Themes

EvolutionHumansPhilosophyScienceDarwin

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture discussing humanity's place in the universe, this quote can be used to encourage a deeper understanding of evolution.

More from Martin Rees

The scientists who attack mainstream religion, rather than striving for peaceful coexistence with it, damage science, and also weaken the fight against fundamentalism.
Martin ReesRead
Let me say that I don't see any conflict between science and religion. I go to church as many other scientists do. I share with most religious people a sense of mystery and wonder at the universe and I want to participate in religious ritual and practices because they're something that all humans can share.
Martin ReesRead
It's becoming clear that in a sense the cosmos provides the only laboratory where sufficiently extreme conditions are ever achieved to test new ideas on particle physics. The energies in the Big Bang were far higher than we can ever achieve on Earth. So by looking at evidence for the Big Bang, and by studying things like neutron stars, we are in effect learning something about fundamental physics.
Martin ReesRead
In the beginning there were only probabilities. The universe could only come into existence if someone observed it. It does not matter that the observers turned up several billion years later. The universe exists because we are aware of it.
Martin ReesRead
Collective human actions are transforming, even ravaging, the biosphere - perhaps irreversibly - through global warming and loss of biodiversity.
Martin ReesRead
It is astonishing that human brains, which evolved to cope with the everyday world, have been able to grasp the counterintuitive mysteries of the cosmos and the quantum.
Martin ReesRead

Similar quotes

When I use the word 'healing', by that I mean that every disease has a physical element that we're very good at handling, but there's always a sense of the violation. 'Why me?' 'Why is my leg broken on the ski trip and not anyone else's?' And I think that medicine has done a terrible job of addressing that spiritual violation.
Abraham VergheseRead
The world is a demon. It is a kingdom of which the puny ego is king. Put it away and stand firm.
Swami VivekanandaRead
I many no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather response to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not.
Jim ElliotRead
Not even old age knows how to love death.
SophoclesRead
There are three ways of securing a society that shall be stable as regards population. The first is that of birth control, the second that of infanticide or really destructive wars, and the third that of general misery except for a powerful minority.
Bertrand RussellRead
The alchemists spent years in their laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that the purification of the metals had led to a purification of themselves.
Paulo CoelhoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.