Re: Darwinian evolution=Armageddon?
From: Michael Ragland (ragland37_at_webtv.net)
Date: 06/26/04
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Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 22:20:07 +0000 (UTC)
You sound angry-frustrated dkomo:)
Michael Ragland
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
A professor asked a student, "If you had a choice between the oppressed
and the oppressor which would you choose." The student replied,
"Neither". The Professor shook his head and stated, "You don't have a
choice." The student paused and said, "The oppressed".
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