The Mental Animal & The Rib!

According to the (mostly agnostic) sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, gynecologists…sorry …the usually very observant and intelligent men & women of 21st Century science--"Man is a social animal."

And if we add to this the "scientific facts" of hard-core Darwinism and evolutionism, we are then also called "intelligent apes"; and/or the "thinking mammals." Because according to evolutionalists, (and the many other fields of scientists which also are [and have always been] evolutionalist), we evolved from being chimps on trees, and apes in the jungles, into becoming "thinking chimps and apes" who started to walk upright, think, reason, rationalize, create, eat cooked food, (wear designer glasses, play stupid lottery games, use mobile phones …); so, we (as chimps and monkeys) evolved to move from the trees and the jungles to the caves, and thus gave birth to the whole notion of society/social-living.

On the other hand, however … and if we minus meditative (aka vegetative!), religions like Buddhism and Hinduism--the world’s major monotheist religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism, suggest that man is basically a rib! Or, in other words, man is an extension of a rib. The rib of Adam. Plus the belief and faith that all mankind is the procreation of Adam and Eve. The way moral happenings and history regarding the human race are concerned, it seems that man has been more fond of his uncle, Lucifer, than he is of his ’original parents’!

So, who is right? The agnostic scientists, or the above-mentioned religious beliefs? And we as ashraful makhlukat have the obligation to study and advance the positive aspects of knowledge and science (the negative aspect in this respect being, for example, the science of both making and as well as exploding a nuclear device!).
So what do you think and believe you are as a human being? An evolved chimp; or a rib?

Utopia vs. Ethiopia
Science deals with reason, experimentation, proof and the (resultant) facts. While religion tries to explain natural human inquiries about spiritual and material existence and matter with the help of symbols; and/or moral symbolic imagery.
But I believe one can peacefully strike a co-existing balance between agnosticism and religious belief, but only without either (1) science putting great effort in disproving religious beliefs, or (2) religion putting an equal amount of effort in dismissing scientific facts as materialistic propaganda.

And, by the way, artistes too can play a huge (cultural) role in this respect; that is, if, as usual, art and artistes are (1) not written-off by scientists as being romantic, idealistic, crazy, and, of course, having no respect for material, proven facts; and (2) the human vanguards of religious beliefs stop calling (much of the arts and artistes) blasphemous people, improper, and a threat to the culture of religious beliefs! Even though, the worse are the confused in-betweens in this context, such as feudals, capitalists, yuppies, etc., who seem to be stuck in their thoughts regarding the meanings of symbolic religious imagery, science, and artistic thought.

Ironically, I have actually seen and heard such men and women describing any religious belief, scientific fact, or artistic notion that (they feel) goes against the well-being of feudalism and capitalism’s two basic demands and ends (i.e. power and profit), as being subversive, or something to be attacked and done-away with through the political, social, cultural, economic and media oriented mechanisms and means of capitalism, feudalism/monarchy-ism, and through the vicious dynamics of religious and ethnic fanaticism, and of extreme atheism too.

Man needs both science and religion. And, of course, art as well. The tussles between these should be Marxist in nature, i.e. a tussle strictly following the ’thesis + anti-thesis = synthesis’ formula and process; further colored and added upon by the abstractism and anarchism of any art bold enough to continue to destruct or to reconstruct itself (according to its multi-dimensional observations of the past and the present and its visions of the future).
In dreams we t(h)rust

But is this too much theory; romantic idealism; and just not possible in politico-economic and social cultures, societies and a world we have lived in ever since (1) the ape became man, or (2) Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden?

Well, at least this much I am sure of: it is surely impossible as long as man, for example, keeps electing men and women like Ronald Reagan, Margerate Thatcher, Nawaz Sharif, the MMA, and especially, George W. Bush Jr.; and as long as Third World nations who suffer long bouts of poverty, actually celebrate the test explosions of their countries’ multi-billion-dollar nuclear devices; or follow demented beards, saffron-clad fanatics, fascists, Zionists, and cross-carrying crusaders into the quicksand of myopia, hatred and intolerance.

Yes sir, these notions of peaceful and progressive coexistence between science, religion and art are certainly too romantic/idealistic and maybe even mad, as long as (1) science is paid more to either design sophisticated weapons or technology that only a handful of the planet’s rich men and women can benefit from and enjoy; (2) when the believers of religion force to push societies backwards towards the perfect days when their respective religions were born (even if this takes the dislodging of men and women from their own religion!); and (3) when art is able to only function and take place if it is sponsored and financed to endorse colas, biscuits, toothpaste, tea, etc. And, for example, when a great mind and revolutionary like Lenin’s statue is replaced with that of an irritating corporate pop star, openly known to have sexually exploited young boys!

But...

Yes, but. As the anarchists of all generations have said (and say): "Demand the impossible!" Well, of course, this does not mean that demanding this, they shall get it. However, just like the scenes we saw at the many anti-capitalism/anti-globalization rallies in Europe and the US in the last few years, this demand may give you the chance to throw the darts (of the mind and the heart) hard. You have nothing to lose, but your manufactured sanity, dig? Or is rib?