Is this really a goal of some scientists – to prove that people are no better than cockroaches?
Filthy, smelly, repulsive. There are a lot of ways to describe cockroaches, but “full of personality” usually isn’t one of them. Yet a team of scientists has not only found evidence that the scuttling insects have personalities, but also discovered that when cockroaches get together, they create a group personality.
I read this, and can’t help but think of this verse from the Bible –
Jn 11:35 Jesus wept.
Seriously. Is this what some people aspire to? Reducing human life to the level of a cockroach?
Makes me think of some other Bible verses –
God’s Wrath Against Mankind
Ro 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Ro 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Ro 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
It’s like we can’t get any more sexually immoral than we already are – so now we’re sinking to whole new levels – taking all of God’s creation down to the level of what we (at least used to) think of as the lowest creature in the food chain. The cockroach.
The whole article – should you want to get depressed about yourself and your future, according to these scientists – is here.
What I find sort of interesting is one quote towards the beginning of the article.
Over the last 2 decades, scientists have documented personalities—that is, consistent behaviors, such as boldness, shyness, sociability, or aggressiveness—in a range of invertebrate species, from octopuses to water striders to social spiders.
As an example of this behavior, the picture at the top of this page shows a roach trying to escape from a bright light.
Now – when I was in school – back in the dark ages, apparently – this type of “behavior” was called fight or flight. It wasn’t personality. It was survival. It wasn’t a human trait – it was a trait shared by all animals. And humans supposedly showed more advanced “behavior”. Have we regressed so far that fight or flight is now the standard by which we measure personality?
Here’s another example –
“There is a collective dynamic—a social influence—that dilutes the individual personality differences,” Planas-Sitjà says. “So in the group, you end up with a similar behavior in everyone.” This conformity happens even though the researchers know, based on previous experiments, that some cockroaches when left alone in the arena never dash to a shelter, whereas others spend only a short amount of time beneath one. Yet they change their behaviors as soon as they’re in a group. “Then they all run to the shelter,” says Planas-Sitjà, who hopes to tease out why and how this happens with further experiments.
Personality change? Or safety in numbers?
Ro 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…
Ever played limbo? Remember saying “How low can you go?”
Apparently – very low. Very futile. Very foolish. Very dark.
My personality comes from the light of God. I am not a cockroach that needs to run from His light.
How about you?
image from sciencemag.org