Re: Darwinian evolution=Armageddon?

From: dkomo (dkomo871_at_comcast.net)
Date: 06/26/04 

Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 04:56:39 +0000 (UTC)

Michael Ragland wrote:

> I disagree with Mr. Buck who is not a scientist but I like his spirit.
> (his brief article is below) He is a socialist and of course if one does
> subscribe to biological determinism then the idea of socialism is
> shattered. But its interesting to note there appears to be two camps
> among followers of biological determinism. The first camp sees nothing
> wrong with biological determinism. It's a part of our Darwinian nature
> and should be fully expressed rather than attempted to be thwarted or
> suppressed. The second camp, among which I include myself, acknowledges
> biological determinism but don't think it should be fully expressed but
> don't believe ultimately it can be thwarted. This camp seems to be in
> the minority. There is a third camp which takes the middle road which
> neither believes our Darwinian nature should be fully expressed but that
> it can be sufficiently controlled. This is probably the majority camp.
>
> That is why I advocate genetic engineering of people. Because I do agree
> generally with people like Pinker. I think if Darwinian evolution is
> permitted to continue it will result in our destruction as a species.

I think that's an absurd assertion. Add up all the people who die or
are wounded from acts of violence every year and compare that number to
the total of all human beings -- 6 billion or so. What percentage do
you think you will get? The percentage will obviously vary from year to
year, but what do you think the average is?

Let's see. Suppose that 1 million people died or were wounded in 2003
from all acts of violence. That's a number that is probably way high,
but let's err on the side of overestimation. 1 million people is 0.017%
of 6 billion people.

Point is, although acts of violence like civil wars, terrorism,
homicide, executions, and violent repression by authoritarian regimes
are on the news every day and grab our attention, only a very small
percentage of the total human population falls victim to it. In fact,
the vast majority of human beings neither commit violence on other human
beings nor are victims. We control our violent aggressions quite
successfully as a species.

> Aggression is a salient component of Darwinian evolution. Will anybody
> seriously question that.

Are you counting human cultural evolution as "Darwinian evolution"? If
so, not just aggression is a salient component of it. So is
cooperation, morality, love, government, religion and all the other
parts of human culture that hold societies together. And these
components taken together completely swamp aggression, as I pointed out
above.

  Can anybody seriously question the continuation
> of extreme violence around the world which is not primarily culturally
> fueled but a part of our biology. I realize some would take issue with
> this and state such violence was primarily culturally fueled but I don't
> believe that.

What is this either/or crap? Aggression is both part of our biology and
culturally fueled.

>
> I'd welcome a response from the likes of Wilkins, Atmar, Moran,
> Felsenstein, Dr. Hayes, etc. whether they consider the continuation of
> Darwinian evolution (assuming there is no genetic intervention) to
> ultimately lead to the destruction of our species.

By all means, query the experts.

[snip the rest]

        --dkomo@cris.com

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Darwinian evolution=Armageddon?
    ... among followers of biological determinism. ... The second camp, among which I include myself, acknowledges ... from all acts of violence. ... Aggression is a salient component of Darwinian evolution. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Darwinian evolution=Armageddon?
    ... > subscribe to biological determinism then the idea of socialism is ... > among followers of biological determinism. ... The second camp, among which I include myself, acknowledges ... > Aggression is a salient component of Darwinian evolution. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)