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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Evidences for Religion (reposting)
Message-ID: <1304@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Jul-85 00:51:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1304
Posted: Wed Jul 24 00:51:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 06:26:25 EDT
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Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week
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>>Morality is an evolutionarily adaptive trait.  It can be a heuristic for
>>optimizing reproductive success.  Just like intelligence. [HUYBENSZ]

> Not to be blatantly contradictory and knitpicky, but morality is not
> evolutionarily adaptive, self-preservation instincts are.  Morality is
> the tendency for species (humans) with higher mental capacities to step
> outside the realm of instinct and analyze the different instincts on a
> rational level. [FREY]

I think a better way to phrase it is "a tendency for species with higher
mental capacities to realize things about longterm self-preservation and
species preservation (two separate but both important issues) and analyze
a preferred course of actions on a rational level".

>>Your example resolves simply in terms of game theory: kill a relative of
>>somebody and you are reducing the genetic fitness of the survivor.  Thus
>>it may pay to make standing threats against people who bump off your
>>relatives.  Making killing someone immoral is a shorthand that is simpler
>>to teach than game theory.

> with humans the argument falls to pieces.  If a person's parents die
> he's less likely to have children?  Where did that statistic come from?

I think Mike was talking about the emotional value we as humans place upon
our relatives and those in our community.  Killing one of them is nearly
as bad as direct harm to you, and may provoke retribution as Mike describes.
-- 
"Meanwhile, I was still thinking..."
				Rich Rosen  ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr