(June 19, 2021 at 6:20 pm)JohnJubinsky Wrote:(June 19, 2021 at 5:13 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: It’s possible, I suppose. But it’s equally likely that it’s more of a social construct than a genetic one. In other words, those qualities you mention (cooperation, defense of the group, etc) have been found to be so useful to society, that they are inculcated rather than genetically inherited. This would explain why parents expend so much effort on teaching their children to be ‘good’.
Boru
Certainly people are also taught to be good but my experience has been that young children are happy innocent things. There is no doubt that they are broadly viewed this way by society.
Children may very well be ‘happy innocent things’, but there is - as yet - no way to tell if this happy innocence is learned or inherited.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson