TP, this is the best post so far from you, in my humble opinion because we are now getting down to the real questions that evolution and religon must answer and which haven't been completely aswered yet in history which is why they both need to be taught in schools because this debate lasts a life time.
As such I want to respond to it with greater thought. Right now I am out the door. I will respond later. Meanwhile perhaps others can respond to you.
I would appreciate if perhaps you can be more specific:
I will ask you one point now to be more specific on ( more later ):
Are you saying that
- self sacrifice is independent of Instinct in animals? ie is not an automatic behavior but rather freely chosen behavior
-Can you show me an example of freely chosen self sacrifice in animals, independent of instinctive behavior?
( instinct is always repeated under the same circumstances; altruism is optional; example of instinct: a herd of Elephants may circle to defend themselves against dangers;always. Humans on the other hand,gg, sometimes, some will hit the door!! <VBG>
TA . . . . .
Message #917 from TigerPaw at Sep 21 1999 12:31PM
Evolution, survival of the fittest; look out for No 1. ..... Because it is absolutely irrational to " die for your brother ". It is philosophically unacceptable.
This is a complete misunderstanding of Natural Selection. Any characteristic which promotes survival will be selected for. If some creature evolves to have offspring which sometimes sacrifice themselves so that others may survive, well the characteristic will promote the survival of more offspring. Sometimes other creatures can get a free ride. A cat and a dog may become buddies not because they share offspring, but because they share the same trait of being protective of the other little critters they were raised with. The trait aids both cat creatures and dog creatures separately, but does not harm them if they apply the trait to creatures only distantly related.
This is why we have seen the pathetic failure ... It's a stretch to try to blame Darwin for policies put into place by others of the Judeo/Christain persuasion. How many polititians can you name that are either other religions or athiest? How much of the current run of troubles is just a sign of a much larger population with more good people as well as bad people. When was the golden era when all was love & peace (1968 maybe?).
TP |