This is a majorly tough story and I think its retelling as a happy kid's story of biodiversity glosses over the moral...challenges of initiating extinctions. I suppose the most comforting interpretation would rely on some idea of God's master plan (unknown to mere mortals) or on humans as instruments of God (what would Kant think?). Frankly, I find both of these happy, neat answers deeply disturbing and thus am left somewhat flummoxed at this story.
Very many animals fascinate me, and my favorite animal, the wolf, is no exception. That said, I really like extinct marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. There's something fundamentally terrifying and fascinating about aquatic and flying animals, I think, because of their ability to exist in environments in which humans are helpless without technology. Extinct marine reptiles look like dinosaurs, though I'm told they're not, and they're huge and tooth-filled and all around really great.
One of my closest friends is a paleontology enthusiast (as in, can identify type of dinosaur using footprints and is just really, really into dinosaurs) and would be very proud of this selection of plesiosaur/mosasaur.
Granted, this selection would really not fit super well with Noah's ark--presumably, these animals would have been unaffected, but extinction in general doesn't make an appearance in the Torah.
Isn't this mosasaur terrifying? Never have I been happier to not be a squid (I think, or maybe cuttlefish).
No comments:
Post a Comment