Humans are not simply animals

• MUKUL SHARMA

AS FARas reproductive behaviour and sexuality is concerned, science has a lot to say about the moral and ethical issues apparently involved. In the animal world, for instance, the idea of what is “normal” and what is not is so frequently breached that it makes mockery of human mores. Cloning — as in the many instances of virgin birth where no males are needed — is common among many species of lizards, fish and some amphibians. Gender determination is not fixed from birth either; there are reptiles whose sex is decided only by the incubation temperature. Others can switch from male to female and back again easily during their lifetimes and, often, even depending on behavioural cues coming from their social group. The scientific notion underlying such “unnatural” activity is that animals will do anything to make sure their kind is propagated through progeny into future generations. Genetically speaking, that is the only obvious and overarching consideration and, here, human beings are no exception. A mother’s love for her baby is actually hardwired into her brain’s circuitry and she can, in general, behave in no other way than she does. In fact, researchers have found that the same wiring exists in all adults’ nervous systems too. Imaging scans indicate that when grownups are shown even random pictures of infants who are not related to them, a part of their brain responsible for facial recognition and behavioural reaction, lights up almost instantaneously, leaving no time for thought processes to mediate. It just means there is no conscious control over such instinctive traits, and biologists say the immediacy of this kind of bonding is necessary for lineages to continue. This could very well be the explanation for things like sacrifice, altruism and even love but, unfortunately, where science has consistently failed to derive a material substrate to a huge range of observed behaviour among humans is in their profession of a divine relationship. It’s far more difficult to drum up a survival value for the existence of a spiritual bonding between an individual and his or her perception of a personal God without stretching the bounds of credibility. And that is exactly the reason why a higher grade of ideals and values has managed to develop within most of humanity than can be explained by animal behaviour, innate programming or brain scans.