Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [RELIGION] creation myths

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> Mike Miller wrote:
>
> > I thought I just explained it.  The purpose of life is to make more 
> > life.
>
> I think you are confusing function and purpose.

There really is no "purpose" of the sort you have when there is a 
designer.  Evolution works by trial and error and success is defined by 
fitness, which is defined by survival and reproduction.  So we were 
essentially "designed" by eons of selection to be optimized for 
reproduction.  We were therefore designed by natural selection processes 
for the purpose of reproduction.


> There is a deep inner innate altrusism in most human beings (I think 
> that the most wicked humans simply bury these desires) that goes beyond 
> mere propagation of life.

Altruism is one of the most-studied features of social organisms in the 
past 45 years or so.  Read Hamilton and Trivers, for example.  Here's a 
few ideas about it to get you started:

http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/bgnews/2005/msg00094.html

Mike

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