(October 17, 2013 at 8:58 am)Sword of Christ Wrote: I would argue with good reason based on what we observe of the human situation on the ground that genuine compassion, altruism selflessness goes beyond your utilitarian view of naturally evolved mutual survival systems. It wouldn't explain why a soldier would jump on a grenade to save his squad mates for example. They're not genetically related to him, if they died and he survived that's no disadvantage to him personally. There was an example of this in the recent shootings in Kenya when someone drew the terrorists attention to himself so saving a group of children. They weren't his children so no good reason to care if they were shot and he himself survived.
As weird as it is to say this, one could probably make the case that our current empathetic and altruistic behavioral patterns are actually errors in the selection process that forged them in us. It's often forgotten in discussions like these, but evolution isn't some perfect straight line heading toward a goal, it's a rather more haphazard process.
In this case, the behavior getting selected for would have been something like "protect your group," as in our case, doing that often leads to better survival. It's the core of a group society, anyway. But there's no discernment there, no actual will ensuring that that behavior works to the survival of the individual organism. The line is still "protect the group," which sometimes comes up against our survival instincts and wins out.
Altruism was selected for because it allowed those that possessed it to survive and pass on their genes, but that wasn't the goal behind it doing so.
"YOU take the hard look in the mirror. You are everything that is wrong with this world. The only thing important to you, is you." - ronedee
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Want to see more of my writing? Check out my (safe for work!) site, Unprotected Sects!