Well, it is now easier for me to put up with Hitchens' great power chauvenism and his Hegelian dialectics without materialism.

Good article. I enjoyed it.

However, in these arguments, I always note that evolution to a higher or lower level is given a human value, when evolution just is...there is no moral value in it whatsoever, unless, of course, it is the instrument of "something" we call God...in which case that amounts to the same thing -- unfathomable, just is.

And afterall, the evolution of the blind salamanders enabled them to survive in very changed circumstances, so for them, it was quite a good thing.

P.S. Has it ever occurred to anyone that the reason women love to shop is that for millions of years we hoisted the babies on our backs and went out in groups to dig for roots and pick fruits and nuts to bring back to the village?

Because, you know, if there was no basis within us for this sort of shopping thing, if going out of the home and returning with a bag of things did not provide some deep pleasure, no advertisements in the world could make it occur.

Not understanding evolution totally blinds us to our own selves, which is not a petty matter and I do not make a petty point.