(October 17, 2013 at 9:59 am)Sword of Christ Wrote: Self destructive behavior if genetically based ought to have been weeded out of the human population millions of years ago unless you want to claim doesn't work the way we believe it's meant to work?This is true, but simplistic. New alleles, and unexpected interactions of genes with a cultural evolution that outpaces biological evolution, makes this more complex. For instance, there are clearly genetics involved in alcoholism. Why weren't these weeded out long before now? I bet you can come up with a reasonable hypothesis for this.
Quote:It's the survival of the individual and their genes within the species not the species as a whole. Even Richard Dawkin's would disagree with you if that's what you're saying.Again, true but simplistic. Since you have a good grasp of the basics, you should extend that by catching up on evolutionary theory (and I do not mean that in a patronizing manner). Altruistic behavior is observed to be genetic even in bacteria, although your point about immediate kin groups is a good one. It tends to hold in times of severe crisis, but it's clear that our cultural wealth can help us extend our ideas of who we ought to help. We do care about starving children in Africa, and culturally and individually many people support helping them- because we can afford to extend our moral viewpoint. If we can't afford to, it's clear we stick to self and kin.