Nature Doesn't Care About Your Morality

A few days ago Slate.com published a fun (in a bit of a perverse kind of way) article, The Most Adorable Animals Engage in the Most Reprehensible Behavior. My favorite line:

There is no animal that is made of rainbows and kisses and goodness all the way through.

This is something I think we all would freely acknowledge. Yet because we urban dwellers live a life largely removed from the wild--or even farm life--it's easy to forget that the world is not like a Primary lesson on the creation.

Further, we can talk about moral guides to human behavior, but the moment you start talking about what is "natural" or enlisting examples of animals in your exhortation, you are on thin ice indeed.

What is natural is not inherently good or evil: It simply is, and we’d be fools to take such examples as models of right or wrong. The dark side of superficially cute animals is a part of their nature that reminds us that the wild does not exist for our entertainment and whimsy. We can find beauty and poetry in nature, but we can also find terror and savagery, all essential parts of the entire picture.

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