Does evolution explain human nature

[turoldus]

This is the latest debate hosted by the Templeton Fundation:

www.templeton.org/evolution/

Frans de Waal's and Lynn Margulis' contributions are enlightening, or frightening, depending on your point of view.

Money quotes:

"
If we look at our species without letting ourselves be blinded by the technological advances of the last few millennia, we see a creature of flesh and blood with a brain that, albeit three times larger than that of a chimpanzee, does not contain any new parts. Our intellect may be superior, but we have no basic wants or needs that cannot also be observed in our close relatives. I interact daily with chimpanzees and bonobos, which are known as anthropoids precisely because of their human-like characteristics. Like us, they strive for power, enjoy sex, want security and affection, kill over territory, and value trust and cooperation. Yes, we use cell phones and fly airplanes, but our psychological make-up remains that of a social primate." Frans de Waal

Our human sort of mutual care, along with the strong feeling of life we have in the presence of sexual partners, family, friends, colleagues, classmates, and fellow citizens (in short, in the company of meaningful others), necessitates frequent communication: symbols, language, music, teaching, learning, etc. Do these activities fundamentally distinguish us from the non-human life forms with whom we share the planet and upon whom we depend for our survival? I doubt it.
Lynn Margulis

[eckadimmock]

The assumption seems to be that if other animals share characteristics, or if those characteristics evolved, then they cannot have their origin in the divine. I'm not sure I see why that should be. Perhaps our fundamentally distinguishing characteristic is that we want to be fundamentally distinguished!

[unkleE]

Our intellect may be superior, but we have no basic wants or needs that cannot also be observed in our close relatives.

This statement makes a lot of reductionist assumptions.

• Do anthropoids ponder the existence of God, and some of them believe in God and serve him by giving their lives to bring medicine to their fellows in "darkest Africa"??
  
• Do they ponder whether their values are objective ethics or "merely" evolutionary ethics?
  
• Do anthropids ever sit up late at night feeling angst in a big lonely world?
  
• Did Jesus Chimp ever preach the sermon on the mount to inspire them or die for their sins and rise again?
  
• Did Mao Zechimp ever start a cultural revolution that killed 40 million fellow chimps, or anthropoid Hitler gas 6 million of his fellows?
  
• Do their fellow anthropoids ever thrill to Chimpgang Mozart's Requiem, or Bonobo Dylan's Blind Willie McTell, did they ever build Ely Cathedral, paint their masterpieces or write poetry, or fall so desperately in love that it made them sick and jubilant at the same time?
  

Perhaps anthropoids do indeed do some of these theings, or the chimp equivalents, but somehow I can't think that they have the same ethical, emotional and aesthetic responses to them. And if these guys really believe there is no differences, then I fear they are that much more capable of doing evil than I would hope they are. Truly there are none so blind as those that refuse to see, especially those whose refusal is ideological!

(I suppose they would say exactly the same about me and my response, but I would rather be mistaken in my direction than theirs!)