09/19/2025
It’s Not Supposed To Be Like This…
Today is a special day, at least in my life and for my family. You won’t find this date on any published calendar. Today, I am officially cancer-free for seven years. While this is a great thing, “I” did not “do” anything to achieve this status. By this I mean I was lacking in the skills, ability, or power to eliminate cancer from my own body. Yet, this brings me to a certain realization.
We realize there are a lot of different contributing factors associated with whether or not someone gets cancer, but the one point everyone recognizes is cancer is not the way it is supposed to be. Cells normatively function in one way, yet they begin functioning in a way inconsistent of their normative practice. Again, we understand cancer to be less than the way things are supposed to be, and we take steps, where possible, to return the body to the state it is supposed to function. Yet, if we truly believe in the “settled science” of evolutionary biology (side note: I don’t, and for good academic and evidential reasons), why should we care? Why should we attempt to eradicate cancers and diseases if we truly believe “survival of the fittest” is true and immutable?
Could it be there is more to the story? Do we at some level understand there is something within humanity that communicates a high value, that disease and affliction is to be addressed and cured where possible simply because one is human? If so, there is no difference between Prince or Pauper, and more importantly, would appear to demonstrate we cannot live out “survival of the fittest” because we simply don’t believe this to be true. If survival of the fittest is truly settled science, then one has to wonder why the scientists continue to develop medicines and procedures to intervene and prevent the very condition many claim to be absolute and immutable.
Disease, pain, suffering, and evil all show us there is something wrong. If we can recognize the “wrong”, then it means there is a “right”, or desired state. Survival of the fittest devalues humanity, yet if it is true “In the beginning, God…”, then we have a very different outlook on the value of even a single individual.