The wolf and the lamb

Since time immemorial, people have dreamt of paradises where life was good. The Bible starts with the Garden of Eden, where Eve and Adam lived happily, had enough, and had no worries. Yet a paradise of peace and harmony is unnatural. We may have good places for a while, but they will eventually disappear due to the struggle for existence. Humans, like other organisms, compete and cooperate. The competition comes at the expense of individuals, even when it benefits the species. And so, paradise has remained a pipe-dream. As Isaiah once prophesied (Isaiah 11:6-9),

The wolf will live with the lamb.
The leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together.
And a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den.
And the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all of my holy mountain.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

As the enlightened observers of the happenings in the wild may have figured out, the wolf will not let the lamb in peace, nor will the cow and the bear share a meal. It is not in their nature to do so. That would require a miracle of the most unnatural kind, which might only happen in fairy tales. And so, despite our efforts to achieve a utopian society, it still eludes us. We have the means to provide everyone with an acceptable standard of living, but somehow we keep fighting and fail to make it a reality. That is in our nature.

Struggle for existence

The struggle for life in nature is brutal and chaotic. In nature, cells cooperate in organisms to compete with other cells that have also organised themselves in organisms. Organisms, as you might know, are plants and animals, and humans are animals. Organisms can organise themselves into groups to cooperate and compete with other groups. The cooperation schemes of cells and organisms are orders. As organisms compete and cooperate, the best-adapted survive. That can put a premium on organising. Yet simple lifeforms have other advantages, such as self-reliance.

There is a balance in nature, as there is in a market. If foxes prey on rabbits, the fastest rabbits and the smartest foxes survive. When there is a surplus of rabbits, foxes can catch more of them and raise more young. As a result, foxes multiply and eat more rabbits, and the rabbit surplus turns into a deficit, and foxes die off. It is a brutal process in which rabbits get eaten, and foxes starve. The introduction of a new species, such as a viral disease that kills off rabbits, can change the balance.

That indeed happened with the help of human interventions. Foxes, being smart animals, adapted and sought other food sources, often not as quickly as rabbits. The rabbit’s demise sealed the fate of several other animals, such as the Nijverdal grouse, which went extinct. It would have been possible to preserve the grouse by shooting foxes. That would create a paradise for the grouse, an unnatural order without predators, so a park rather than nature. Indeed, a Paradise is like a garden rather than nature unhinged.

Invasive species

Foreign species can disrupt the balance of nature. Many die off, but some thrive, replacing native species and becoming pests. The American red crayfish is an invasive species in the Netherlands that wreaks havoc among native fish and plant species. Invasive species can become a new food source for other species. Crayfish are a good source of protein. Humans are the most disruptive species, murdering countless animals and plants. Humans have now ruined most of nature to create living space for themselves.

It is a matter of competitive advantage. Humans took over because they could. No one stopped them. Their genes, rather than a command in the Bible, drove them to exploit their environments and multiply. And so, the spread of humans resembles the spread of pests. When Europeans gained a competitive advantage over others, their genes multiplied, and they spread across the world, thereby usurping others’ land.

After they had created a paradise for themselves, foreigners came to their lands. While Westerners were busy maximising their utility, the immigrants’ genes took advantage of the situation. Westerners require spacious housing and may forego having children to lead a good life. Immigrants settle for small spaces and simple lives and have more children. In this way, descendants of immigrants replace the native population.

Relative advantages and disadvantages disturb the balance. You can compare both situations to the development of a pest. It promotes unease among the disadvantaged group, making them feel overrun, so that they may resort to violence. The competition between genes generates these feelings. Apart from that, human consumption levels are unsustainable. Yet, nature doesn’t care who survives.

Peace and stability can only be achieved by creating an unnatural state. It becomes possible if everyone lives under a single order, shares a common set of values, norms, and rules, and agrees to a social contract. It must be a stable situation as if time has stopped, to prevent new imbalances. That only happens in fairy tales. Isaiah already knew as he wrote, ‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.’

Chimpanzees versus bonobos

Chimpanzees are our closest relatives. They live in patriarchal groups. A dominant alpha male leads the group, and males hold higher ranks than females. Male chimpanzees are generally larger and more aggressive, forming dominance hierarchies where they vie for the alpha position. High-ranking males form coalitions to consolidate power, maintain order, and intimidate rivals or lower-ranking females. Chimpanzees can be violent, and they sometimes commit genocide on rival groups.

Also very close to us are the uran utangs and bonobos. Yet, bonobos live in matriarchal groups where females hold the highest ranks and lead through collective power, cooperation, and alliances. Rather than ruling through force, female bonobos secure their dominance by banding together to intimidate or attack males who step out of line. The female-led organisation in bonobo groups works in the following ways:

• Female bonobos form life-long bonds with one another. When a male tries to assert dominance or steal food, females unite to put him in his place.
• Males remain with their mothers for life. High-ranking mothers support their sons, allowing them to rise in the hierarchy and mate.
• As females have the power, they get first access to desirable food sources.
• Rather than intimidation and violence, bonobo politics involves sex to reduce stress, ease tensions, and form social bonds.

In human societies, male dominance is the norm, but female leadership is possible. The chimpanzees are the closest to us, and patriarchy is their default. Yet, as the bonobos are nearly as close to us, the alternative is possible because we are programmable and have cultures that define the relationships between the sexes. Monogamous relationships may promote group success because all men would have something to fight for and it would reduce male infighting for mating opportunities inside the group. And it would reduce the spread of sexual transmittable diseases.

Garden of Eden

In the original tale of the Garden of Eden, the gods or the Goddess created man as a companion for the woman by making her give birth to him. The rib story is so obviously fake that it is a monument of mass indoctrination and shows the degree to which we are willing to believe fairy tales. The Garden of Eden was a matriarchal society. A man left his parents to live with his wife. Men existed to please their wives. They weren’t even fathers, so children were the women’s seed. And so, Eve could give birth to Adam as a ‘virgin’. To obfuscate that fact, which was a core belief of the first true Christians, the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus came to replace it. The Fall made woman the servant of the man, the story goes, because of her desire for him, for which he was created.

The Garden of Eden is an unnatural state, as human organisation defaults to patriarchy. Men fought and risked their lives to protect women and children from other men, and if the women and children were their own, they were even more motivated. Bands of hunter-gatherers had no property and could avoid conflict by moving on, thereby allowing for greater freedom in gender roles, such as matriarchy. With the advent of agriculture and permanent settlements, defence became of the utmost importance. Men fought and murdered to plunder or to protect property. In the Bible, Abel was the first casualty.

On average, men are more violent than women. About 95% of the prison population consists of men. Still, most men don’t abuse women, and women can be abusive in other ways, so it is a difference in average. Men do nearly all the raping, yet culture can go a long way in civilising men. Compared to gang-infested areas, rape levels in civilised areas can be as much as 95% lower. Men are the way they are because the struggle for survival made them that way, and in less civilised conditions, that is an advantage. Yet the reason why humans can’t create a paradise on their own is that they are more like chimpanzees than bonobos, and men, rather than women, dominate human societies. The fall of humankind is the fall of women to a secondary status, or so it was in the original tale of the Garden of Eden.

Latest revision: 21 May 2026

Featured image: The Golden Age. Lucas Cranach the Elder (ca. 1530). Wikimedia Commons.