Sherman P. Bastarache is an Award-Winning Canadian author currently living in Riverview, New Brunswick. He just published his fourth book Conspiracy by Means of Natural Selection. It examines human nature, our origins, and how belief-knowledge tends to overpower our reasoning.
His third book: An Erotic Phenotype, which delves into the human emotion we call romantic love. An Erotic Phenotype covers our human climb from animal instincts to higher emotions.
His second book: Moral Indignation, treats the topic of embryonic stem cell research with all the moral implications, specifically women's rights, abortion, and the impartment of a soul, based on religious assessment.
In the book Tilogos, after years of reflection and observations on how people use language naturally, watching children learning to speak and researching the topic he has finally written his first book on the topic of language.
Sherman enjoys spending time with his granddaughter. Children are the best teachers as they learn unabashedly and teach honestly life's loves and lessons.
We had a great chance to conduct an interview with him, in which he told us much more about his book “Conspiracy by Means of Natural Selection”
Check out the interview:
What sparked your passion for writing, and how has it evolved over the course of your career?
I find writing helps to formulate better thoughts. I had a “wait just a minute” moment one day and started writing my first book—on language. The creationist claimed that language was so complex that evolution could never explain it. The Intelligent Design camp claimed many things were too complex to arise without planning by an intelligent designer. I thought otherwise! As I started to compose the words that would formulate my thesis, I realized that writing was powerful. I became addicted.
Over the years. I developed better critical thinking skills, and grew to love reading, which greatly aided my research. Moral Indignation grew from the realization that prolife advocates are more often not prolife, but strictly anti-abortionists. I saw the religious argument differently and compiled an argument in favor of science and religion (faith and reason) working together—as they should—for the benefit of all humans.
You've written on diverse topics like language, erotic phenotypes, moral indignation, and conspiracy theories. What draws you to explore such varied subjects?
Mostly a lack of knowledge. I feel that it is our human responsibility to learn as much as we can. The best tool humans have for learning about complex behaviours is the power of questioning. One cannot find a more complex behaviour than love. It was my depression that questioned love, I was just along for the wild ride. Now that my depression has a better understanding of love, it takes frequent naps, which allows me to live life again.
You've won awards for your writing. How do you think your achievements have impacted your approach to storytelling or non-fiction writing?
It scares me! As it should! It sets a bar which, naturally, everyone, myself included, wants to exceed next time around. This is an impossible demand humans tend to place upon themselves. If my writing is worthy of an award, it has one meaning to me: the work in question was expressed well enough, understood well enough, that it was not a waste of my time writing it, nor the awarders time in reading it. This is all one can hope to achieve in life—to be well understood. With that said, I continue to write every word with the hope of being well understood.
What was the spark that led you to write Conspiracy by Means of Natural Selection, and why did you feel this subject was so important to tackle?
The past few years have been exceptional in fake news, conspiracies, and misinformation. Any time something becomes exceptional it is worth investigating. Extremism is everywhere. Misogyny, mans original pathology, is beginning to reassert itself everywhere.
Knowledge is, and has been, growing exponentially for some time now. The question that must be asked is: Why are humans rejecting this hard-won knowledge? No one bothers to research history, science, religion, or for that matter, the sources of the information they hold as true.
The final assault on our humanity, for me, was wording. He who controls the narrative, controls the world! When people freely corrupt the meanings of words—place their own definitions contrary to the original meanings—then it is time to investigate this cringe phenomenon. To use only one example, the corruption of the word genocide stands out here!
The book suggests that conspiracy thinking is rooted in natural selection. Could you explain, in simple terms, how human nature and evolution play into this idea?
You are teaching your daughter to play catch. To catch a ball, her brain performs complex calculus. It is not just that her brain learns from trial and error. Natural selection promoted brain cells, entire brains, that excel at learning the world. (Importantly, not learning “about” the world). To do this, these brain cells must hold information as true, then test for accuracy. That works fine for calculus. There is a vast body of neuroscientific evidence as to how brain cells grow new connections, strengthen some connections, and prune connections that are no longer relevant. There are even videos of cells growing new connections.
When dealing with unproven, or unprovable beliefs, there is no trial and error to control brain cell connections. As long as these unprovable beliefs do not interfere with our natural survival, then there is no selective pressure against them. Thus, our brains continue to affirm what they hold as true, without proof. The more affirmation they receive, the stronger the connections get. When valid evidence is presented against our held true convections, well, let’s just say that it is easier to make strong connections then it is to break them.
In using words, with the original unadulterated meanings, we have one that stands tall. Spirate, the original becomes the root for: Spirit, inspire, expire, and even spiral when we lose control. It is no surprise conspire would top our list. To conspire is to make everyone else believe as we do! To breathe our truth into others!
You mention that your findings may challenge or even offend readers from different walks of life. Why was it important for you to take that risk in pursuit of truth?
Truth is the only eternal! After everything in this universe vanishes, the only thing that will remain is the truth of its former existence. Truth does not concern itself with your opinion. If humans are to survive themselves, they must first confront what they hold as the truth.
There is one scripture that stands out to me, paraphrased here: If one knows to do good, but does it not, unto them it is sin. This is true whether you are religious, atheist, or indifferent! To seek out truth is par excellence and guiltless.
How does "Conspiracy by Means of Natural Selection" fit into your broader body of work, and do you see themes from your other books intersecting with this one?
I do have certain themes recurrent in my broader body of work. Questions that never get asked, never get answered. Why is every difficult concept to find answers to always explained away by happy accidents—scientists, or the God of the gaps—creationist? If you don’t know something, say you don’t know! Then formulate better questions.
How can evolution by means of natural selection create a perceived soul or spirit is a bad question. A better question, one with a possible answer, is how did natural selection create a brain that thinks about itself? That answer might be as simple as information collection. Information enters the brain from several different senses and is stored and processed in different brain areas. Every brain cell is in communication with every other brain cell—generalized here, for critical thinkers. It would be harder to explain a brain system not developing the concept of having a soul or spirit superimposed upon it. Once this conclusion is reached, the answers to harder questions start to appear.
I expressed these ideas in Moral Indignation in answer to the impartment of the soul. I avoided the topic of love in Moral Indignation as it was too long to consider in that work. An Erotic Phenotype was meant to establish a selectable, natural truism on the emergence of romantic love. Of course, all my books are based on the scientific perspective.
The seeds for Conspiracy by Means of Natural Selection started out by me asking myself: Why is it so easy for people to dismiss proven facts? I could recognise people finding it difficult to understand the facts. Dismissing them out of hand?
In Conspiracy by Means of Natural Selection I revisited one theme from An Erotic Phenotype, with a twist—our matriarch origins—incinerated by the rise of one specific pathology. That pathology is misogyny! Once misogyny becomes religious doctrine it becomes the will of God! This world has been burning ever since!
How do you think your curiosity about life and human nature influences your writing?
I think that curiosity is the spice of life! If we were not curious creatures we would perish from boredom. Every tidbit of information we inhale through our senses is driven by our curious nature of wanting to understand how the world works. Deep down humans want to understand the nature of love, the nature of happiness, the nature of behaviour. You just need to watch people while they learn. This is especially true of watching infants and children’s reactions to their “ah ha” moments.
How do you balance your writing with other aspects of life, like spending time with family (like your granddaughter)?
I work a fulltime job! I did the math! If I die at the age of 87, I will need to work until I am 93 years old before I can afford to retire! Greedflation! Shrinkflation!
I live extremely close to my family: one of my daughters and granddaughter. Because I see them daily, the burden of trying to find time to spend with them is lifted. I am blessed in this. My other daughter lives two-hours away, so I must set time aside to visit.
Divorced for a few years now, gives me plenty of alone time to ponder life’s meaning. I even find time to write these ponderings in the form of books. I am currently writing my fifth book—a surprise, so don’t ask—which is mostly still brain strain.
What are your goals for your writing career in the next few years?
The love of writing is one of those unexplained phenomena, like the spirit or soul, mentioned above.
I do not formally advertise my books. I do get them reviewed and post the reviews. Good reviews do not automatically sell books. Receiving an award does not make a best seller. That said, as long as I can afford editing cost, I will continue to publish what I write. I will continue to write until I cannot write anymore!
They say that humans are social creatures and require intimate companionship. Writing has become my intimate companion. Writing has deep conversations with me. Writings enquiries are a genuine attempt to get to know me better, or at least to bring out the best in me—I am no angel. This companionship eases my depression.
