The Truth Behind Our Knowledge and Wisdom

All of a sudden, there is a big change in what Dawkins is saying, on page 23 he states, “No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch. A body is the gene’s way of preserving the genes unaltered.” This quote is very interesting and the ideas he throws out there take a while to understand, but then you can connect or relate to his thoughts.

The first part where he says that ‘not one jot will be passed on to your children’ is true because you create your knowledge and wisdom with society and the environment. If your children grow up in a different country with a different kind of society, then their thoughts and views on life can be completely different from yours. For example, children who are adopted. They have never met their biological parents, yet they have the same knowledge and wisdom. That seems a bit odd because during their childhood and further on in their life, they will be influenced by their surroundings and not by their genes that run around in their body. Each new generation does ‘start from scratch’. They are free to absorb any new information, hence each generation being different from their parents.

I really like how he says that our body ‘preserves’ the genes that have not changed. It makes you feel powerful and important because you are keeping something that no one else has, alive. Genes are using our body to stay alive and keep the unaltered genes safe, and we should take care of our body so that they will not become extinct. That is why we are their ‘survival machines’ because what ever happens to us happens to them.

When I read the quote, I looked at it for a minute and let the information sink in. It takes a while to understand or connect to, or perhaps you will never feel any of that, but to me the quote said something interesting and true. We do ‘preserve’ the genes in our body and wisdom and knowledge cannot pass on to other generations through genes.