(June 25, 2015 at 11:14 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote:(June 25, 2015 at 11:05 pm)Louis Chérubin Wrote: Natural selection is usually only applied to individuals though. Murder is often good for the survival of an individual. Why do so many people not want to murder (since you brought up the topic). Why would you care about the life of another person, presuming you could get away with it?
So utterly incorrect. Selection works on populations. Individuals do not evolve, populations do.
Murder is not good for the individual human. We live in societies, we are social animals. Murders attract attention, come with the near inevitability of extremely negative consequences, none of which are good for the propagation of our genes. This is not true with him or me situations. Which is why our society developed a self-defense caveat.
And be careful. You are intimating that the only reason you don't murder is that you don't think you'd get away with it.
"Murder is not good for the individual human." Murder could help rid societies of defective genes. It could rid societies of unproductive dependents. It would also allow the murderer to acquire the murdered person's goods.
BTW. I don't murder because my God-given conscience restrains me and because God tells me not to.
