Huge Entity, Huge Rants

The discovery of our new hominid cousin Homo Floresiensis, I believe, is something to celebrate. Human beings are often conditioned to perceive themselves as somehow being outside of nature. Under religious headings Mankind is frequently posited as a ruler of God's kingdom (i.e. the natural universe). And in humanistic philosophies Mankind is encouraged to grasp with both hands the lucky advantage nature has given us and use it for the good of the Earth, for the good of the natural world and for the bettering of Mankind itself.

What scientifically shattering discoveries such as Homo Floresiensis prove is that our conceptions can never be misinterpreted as truth. For in the uncovering of yet another trickle in the Homo bloodline, I believe, we can see how blind we really are and how misconceived our perceptions on the world around us can truly be.

Homo Sapiens are nothing special, we are just the lucky gene pool to have risen through the quagmire of time. We may well be the creatures who have made the biggest impact on the environment we see around us, but that environment is not eternal and neither are we. It could just have easily have been our other cousins, the Neanderthal, who filled the evolutionary niche that the end of the ice age provided for us; it could equally have been us, the Homo Sapien, who died out instead. What the discovery of Homo Floresiensis proves, beyond doubt, is that the evolutionary line did not stop with us at some peak of natural potency. Homo Floresiensis evolved from Homo Erectus, our shared pre-historical father.

The discovery of Homo Floresiensis surely proves that Man is nature's, and not
the other way round.

...and so onwards...