If you read the pope’s writings about sex, you’ll find him referring to it as a mystery. That’s not only true of human sexuality, it’s true of sex in general. There are still an awful lot of things we don’t know about it–more scientific mysteries to be explored. One is: Why so many organisms use sex as a means of reproduction? Why isn’t it supplemented by asexual reproduction more ofthen than it is? The answer to those questions isn’t clear, and is getting less clear as doubt is cast on one of the most popular theories proposed to explain it.
That theory is known as the Red Queen hypothesis–named after the character from Alice Through The Looking Glass. Just as, in the novel, the Red Queen told Alice she has to run as fast as she can to keep in one place, the Red Queen hypothesis holds that organisms need to keep shuffling their genes through sexual reproduction in order to avoid getting killed off by biological threats like parasites, germs, and viruses.
Problem is, new information casts doubt on the Red Queen hypothesis, suggesting that the benefits of sexula reproduction aren’t enough to explain its prevalence in the world. Those are only the benefits of sexual reproduction that we can presently perceive, of course. Further research may turn up fully satisfactory explanations.
But for now, sex continues to be a mystery–even on the biological level.
I wonder and wonder and wonder, that if the theory of evolution is correct, it can accomodate all things, but how the sex differenciation began, and how such a force was evolved for the procreation of every kind of animal. Can somebody illuminate me on the subject.
Thanks
Riaz