Suffering is a byproduct of evolution by natural selection, an inevitable consequence that may worry us in our more sympathetic moments but cannot be expected to worry a tiger - even if a tiger can be said to worry about anything at all - and certainly cannot be expected to worry its genes.
Interpretation
Suffering is a natural part of evolution, and while it may concern us, it does not affect the instincts of animals like tigers.
In this quote, Richard Dawkins highlights the idea that suffering is an inherent aspect of the evolutionary process driven by natural selection. While humans may feel empathy and concern over suffering, animals such as tigers operate primarily on instinct, and their survival and reproductive success are unaffected by the notion of suffering, underscoring a fundamental difference in how species perceive and respond to the challenges posed by their existence.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of life and survival, one might quote Dawkins to illustrate the harsh realities of evolution.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is.
Spare me through your mercy, do not punish me through your justice.
We are not responsible to God for the soul that are saved, but we are responsible for the Gospel that is preached, and for the way in which we preach it
Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel, as grace and sin in the same heart.
God's existence cannot be deduced by reason alone.
Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
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