Sure...
Disclaimer: sorry of you find this offensive (picture or text) I find it interesting! so if you donlt like it, don't read it!
"We know of no other way that human nature can have developed except by evolution, and there is now overwhelming evidence that that there is no other way for evolution to work except by competitve reproduction. Those strains that reproduce persist; those that don't reproduce die out... ...It seems to imply that Mozart and shakespear were motivated only by sex... ...it seems to deny free will, ignore those who choose chastitiy and portray human beings only as robots bent on procreation... ...there is nothing inconsistant with free will or chastity in this view of life, free will was not created for fun; there was a reason that evolution handed our ancestors the ability to take initiateves, and the reason was that free will and initiative are means to satisfy ambition, to compete with fellow human beings, to deal with life's emergencies and so eventually be in a better position to reproduce and rear children."-The Red Queen, Matt Ridley
So does that mean choosing chastity or anything else that does not enhance reproduction are side effects? What else is there that does not link to reproduction in the end, I mean, you can just keep on going untill you find a link with just about anything! Is that not very easily thought though? A bit to black and white? How am I supposed to read chapters a week, 19 books this semester if I can't get through a single page without having a thousand questions and my mind wondering off!!
It's interesting, that is good, but PLEASE! just let me read! *goes back to reading*
So does that mean choosing chastity or anything else that does not enhance reproduction are side effects? What else is there that does not link to reproduction in the end, I mean, you can just keep on going untill you find a link with just about anything! Is that not very easily thought though? A bit to black and white? How am I supposed to read chapters a week, 19 books this semester if I can't get through a single page without having a thousand questions and my mind wondering off!!
It's interesting, that is good, but PLEASE! just let me read! *goes back to reading*
posted by Nooy at Thursday, January 12, 2006
2 Comments:
I learnt when studying Chemistry that the questions never stopped! If they did, then i'd be worried becuase then it would mean i wasn't interested enough anymore to question everything i was reading. maybe philosophy would have been a good degree for you? lol!
I suppose procreation is important in evolution, but perhaps the fact that we do have free will in NOT procreating is another nice aspect of evolution? Why is it neccesarily good to continue?
Hope you find some more interesting things in that book. I've finally started reading again (think i was a bit brainwashed by the end of my degree) and going trough them like nobody's business! found a book store here in Wellington where they will swop books! That's great!
Hugs from the gypsy...now in NZ..
Hum difficult to like -or dislike- if don't read first ^^
So here I come with my reflexions on it too...enjoy !!
Was Mozart a "sex machine"? lol strange assertion; probably right but that seems sorta out of context in the reflexion of the author... Mozart died poor at 35, having 6 children from whom only 2 survived and lived a "normal" life, far from the succes their father had... Not really a reference as for any selection mecanism selecting the best strains. except if you consider the death of the other 4 as a new exemple of selection too... Cool in that point of view the people that die of hunger due to wars and economical restrictions are just suffering selection... they'll be happy to know they are not good enough to survive ...
When Humans speak about their own evolution that reminds me of some ethnic massacres and eugenism (Haeckel that interprets Darwin's concepts and Hitler that imposes them...)
quoted from Iris "Why is it neccesarily good to continue?
It is not necessarily good but it can be though.What if we give birth to a dictator or, on the contrary to a future wise being ? I guess free will just allows us to decide for ourselves what we think is best but can't help us to "know" anything for sure and is certainly not a concept to be used to understand or interpret evolution.
Can free will be an advantage to satisfy ambition? for sure! to take a "dominant" position? probably too. To insure the strain? Quite a short-cut indeed!
The question may be is being dominant a condition to procreate? In the Middle Age a Serf could buy his freedom(in theory at least) but many couldn't and yet had children ^^.
On the other hand, procreation can be seen as a mean to insure one's own life; at least it is how is sometimes represented the Indian way of life: having a lot of children in order to have someone to take care of elders.
So in that case procreation is not presented as a way to insure perinnity of the familly but one's own good. No evolution in that consideration at all.
And finally... isn't "procreating" (that's sounds so industrial ^^lol) sometimes just a consequence of sociology and psychology? I mean, in most of the religions one's has to procreate (most of the time it is even said litterally)...
So if you give birth and have a belief does that mean you don't have free will and just obey to your religious principles?
If you give birth is it just to act as you've been learning that was the right thing to do, according to the education and general behavior in your society?
And at last, isn't having a child also a sort of selfish way to just enjoy sharing "something" you can love and give attention to with the partner you chose, without any consideration to the adult it will become? (héhé, do some people have pets at home because they can't/don't want to have children? quite a short-cut too but this would add a stone to my last remark though^^).
Ok I am not sure I helped a lot, probably all the contrary ^^ But maybe you found new subjects of brainstorming? :p
Have fun with the rest of your book lol :)
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