Are we Bugs?

Are we Bugs?

We’re told that prior to life on the planet, conditions were such that amino acids formed in the primordial soup, and this has been demonstrated in the lab, OK. We’re also told that life in the form of a single cell organism formed spontaneously, this has not been demonstrated in the lab, maybe not OK. In fact, someone who unfortunately hasn’t got a life as such, has calculated the odds of amino acids forming a single strand of DNA that would create a single cell self-replicating organism, the odds are so immense, the number is apparently more than all the electrons in all the mass of the universe, previously calculated by some other unfortunate soulless person.

The point being, unless we were particularly blessed by lady luck, the emergence of life would never have happened, with odds like that, were it a DNA match test, you definitely wouldn’t be the father. So, this is a mystery; the hand of god, seeded by aliens, dust containing bacteria from a comets tail. Those are all I can think up; maybe you can improve on it.

So, these single cell organisms divided happily ever after? No, we're told that, some stayed where they were and are bacteria, some invented photosynthesis and became plants, some ate each other and the plants too and became animals. The notion is that these cells, all with the same DNA started to clump together to gang up on other ones as a survival tactic, they formed into a doughnut which elongated into a tube, forming an alimentary canal. Then, cells adapted to become specialised allowing these bugs to have a structure. In this ordered form of creature, individual bugs could still self-replicate,  but, some clever bug-gers invented sex, whereby two bugs could exchange gametes, a gamete is a cell containing one half of a strand of DNA, a sex cell. When gametes get it together they make a zygote, a single cell self-replicating organism, that in one lifetime divides until it forms a doughnut then a tube, then cells specialise to form different tissues until it is a similar creature to its parents, the individual cells continue to divide and self-replicate.

That sounds repetitive, it was meant to, the first clumps of bacteria ended up reproducing exactly how we do today.

So where do colonies of bacteria end and where do individual creatures or us begin. We consider ourselves to be a single entity with one body, one mind, one personality and for some people, one soul, is this a creation of a clever autonomous brain, a figment of the imagination of a whole bunch of neurons (really clever bug-gers)

We are not even one creature, we are legion, our skin is covered in bacteria, our innards are full of bacteria, actually more bacteria than the number of our own cells, and our solitary existence without these bacteria would not be possible, we would die. Our tissues can be harvested and cultivated in the laboratory, growing and thriving as living tissue, it’s not much of a life though, they don’t get out much.

I put the theory that all living creatures are not individuals, all living creatures are in fact very well organised colonies of bacteria, we are all bugs.