Testing the strength of your Atheism

[AFTT47]

That's the only reason I can fathom for evolution selecting for emotion. Without that, I might not figure it's worth the trouble to continue on.

For example hunger and thirst are not rational reasons to take action, right? They are states of mind that urge you to do something. Then kicks in rationality and tells you how to obtain them.

I'm not sure. I can see that giving a crap about your own existence is not rational; it is emotional. Given that you DO care, taking action to protect your existence becomes rational. But you didn't answer my example about a simple creature like an ant; you only quoted it.

I can give you an even simpler example: An electrical generator powered by a diesel engine needs to be cranked in order to start. It relies on an external power source (usually a lead-acid battery) to provide power to a cranking motor. A relatively smart generator with a micro controller could monitor the condition of the battery. If it sees the open-circuit voltage of the battery approaching the point where it might not be able to provide enough power, it could initiate an auto-start in order to charge the battery before it's too late.

That would require a fairly simple programming task and it would be based entirely on logic. I couldn't even begin to fathom how I would program a computer to fear for its own existence, thus making damn sure it cranks up the generator before the battery deteriorates too much. And why would I bother, even if I knew how? Logic is simpler.

Maybe this question deserves its own thread in the philosophy forum but I wonder why simple logic works for the simple organism but more complex ones require emotion.