"The Maintenece of Equilibrium"

By Mason, posted 01/16/00

Strange as it may seem to our modern generation, the belief in the human race's susceptibility to the laws of nature has known controversy. Our Western forefathers, for instance, could not reconcile their belief that man was made in God's image with the vulgar notion of man as just another animal; after all, went the old argument, man rules the world. Under the circumstances, it was difficult to resolve the conflict incumbent in the contradiction of the ruler bound by the rules: if man rules the earth, why should he be susceptible to natural laws? Their answer: man is the beneficiary of Providence. Today Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, rather than the Bible's Creation Myth, underlies all other personal beliefs regarding our creation and history; even those who subscribe to the creationist tradition outlined in the Book of Genesis usually agree that evolution plays some role in human development. Resolving ourselves to our place on the evolutionary ladder represents a major step toward viewing man as at the whim of natural law, but it is a fairly new development. As late as the 1920s American parents grew incensed over public-school instruction of Darwin's theories; the famous Scopes-Monkey trial debated this very issue. Evolution won. Now that we have progressed to the acceptance of evolution, are we ready to take the next step? Are we enlightened enough to view the human race as just another animal, without any special gift from Providence to set us apart? It is my belief that we are finally ready to look into the human condition with the objectivity we previously reserved for the non-hominids.

But man works fast. As the computer revolution shows—from the calculator to the microchip in two generations—no sooner does man set his mind to solving a problem than it is solved (having, of course, created a slew of other problems in the process). Therefore, before science exhausts objective analysis of human nature, let us begin the process by setting our sights on a single aspect of that nature. Nature offers a variety of laws that affect all things on earth, including humans; let's pick one. Gravity. Since Isaac Newton took an interest in the processes involved in an apple's path from tree to ground—will the apple always fall? asked Sir Isaac; of course it will, was the reply—gravity has been an accepted part of life. Man may have noticed the effects of gravity long before Sir Isaac printed his findings, but it took that great man to name and explain it. Our cause, then, is to project this theory—this gravity—to its lowest common denominator. Man is not only under the power and influence of gravity when, blinded by his Sunday morning hangover, he trips over a coffee table; within his very being the force of gravity constantly works against his many organs and appendages. Man's receiver for the messages of the gravitational field is called equilibrium It is the maintenance of equilibrium that allows a man to remain standing. In a sense there is a constant battle between man and