...and call me in the morning

I read an interesting article today about a gene that keeps male mammals from staying monogamous. The article described that only five percent of all mammals are monogamous, and only when raising children is more beneficial in the two parent home as opposed to single mother or group home. It then supposed a world where these restless men could take a pill to satisfy their craving to move on to the next partner.

I read this amusing New York Times article and think of the big bang controversy. There has been a scism between the scientific and religious. I believe both stories have value, and can be interpreted together. I can jointly believe in God and science by choosing to believe that God created the mathematical laws of the universe that led from an explosion of hydrogen to the evolution of the human race (with a couple chapters inbeteeen). If God wanted to send a message to humans it would be through biology assuming my previous evolutionary argument of her will.

So as a male mammal I have the evolutionary urge to mate past my socially accepted monogamous relationship while also trying to conform to my society. I have three options: I can fight my evolutionary urges with pure willpower, I can take a pill to cut these urges away, or I can accept them.

Personally I'd like to see where the third option leads, to a place where it literally takes a village, where your religious father beats up your abusive father while your mothers play a string quartet as the fifth tucks you into bed beside your twenty-four brothers and sisters. Your oldest sister already has a family of her own, your youngest sibling was born just last week. Wow, we are not ready or this social reality.

But seriously, would our forseeing God ask us to resolve this problem of restlessness on our own, or would she know we had evolved enough to not only understand these genetic markers, but change the way we interact with our own minds?

I had a similar conversation about ADD the other night with Matt and Krystal. We were talking about Ritalin and it's prevalence not only for necessity but for recreation, and it struck me that some people really can't concentrate on one thing at a time. Their brains are packed with incoming signals, they are in a state of shock. How does this situation differ? If we are to master this problem by willpower, would we change the society to one that doesn't send a million messages to our brains a minute, put differently, do we all take Ritalin or turn off the TV? Should we as humans stay monogamous or would our children do better in single or group homes?

I love the hard questions because they take days to stew before they make sense. :)