(December 13, 2014 at 9:13 am)robvalue Wrote: MM, to me you seem to be jumping in and out of thinking about things from an evolution standpoint.
If you consider evolution, then everything that happens, suicide included, is part of evolution. Because evolution is what happens. It's a tautology, it's the very definition. You can't alter evolution, the environments change as a result of evolution, which evolving species then adapt to. It's a cycle. But agreed, from this point of view we are no better or worse than anything else. This is of no real worth though as an observation, because we don't make moral decisions or evaluations based on evolution.
You can only "alter" evolution if you define it in a certain way under certain conditions, such as not having the environment radically changed or DNA being messed with. But that's just one possible path evolution could take, and it's not what is really happening, so it's useless to think of it that way. That is a world without humans.
If you're not considering evolution, and I think it's pointless to do so because evolution has no aims anyway, then objectively we are fucking terrible. We screw over other species and the planet, and it would be better for all of those other species if we weren't here. Say if we came to that conclusion as a species and wiped ourselves out on purpose, then that would be objectively good for the planet and the other species. And it would still be part of evolution.
My meander through genetic drift was to arrive at the point that you cannot simply refer to suicide as a process to 'weed out the unfit'', whether in part or in whole.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
