The Biology of Belief

Who discovered the idea of evolution? Charles Darwin? You might think so, but you’d be wrong. It was actually discovered a few decades before Darwin, by a French biologist named Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Lamarck’s idea of evolution, however, was slightly different than Darwin’s.

Unlike Darwin, who viewed evolution as a battle between species, Lamarck conceptualized evolution in kinder terms. To Lamarck, cooperation between species and individuals was extremely important to evolution.

And unlike Darwinist theory which describes random genetic mutations, some of which help an individual survive in their environment and in turn encourage evolutionary progress, Lamarck suggested that species evolve as they learn to fit their surroundings.

And in many ways, Lamarck’s view is closer to our current understanding of evolution.

For example, when we look at how the immune system functions, we can see how organisms adapt to their environment and pass this knowledge onto their offspring.

When a virus enters our body, our antibodies fight it. When antibodies are successful, they “remember” the virus and how to kill it. This memory is then passed on to the antibody’s daughter cells.

Lamarck’s notion that organisms often cooperate, rather than constantly fight, can also be demonstrated by modern scientific research. And we are not just referring to members of the same species. There are many symbiotic relationships in nature, where different species appear to cooperate with one another.

For example, our digestive system contains billions of bacteria to help it function. Without these bacteria, we wouldn’t be able to digest the food we eat.

Furthermore, interspecies cooperation even affects genes.

Science has revealed that genes don't necessarily have to be passed on through reproduction from individual to individual, but that they can be shared with members of other species.

The following blinks will show how our understanding of the functioning of human cell biology confirms this Lamarckian idea of cooperation.