Hi to everybody...had a good night...woke to a lovely sunny day at 9.10 and half an hour later it was bucketing with rain...then it stopped and hubby went round for the paper, it poured a couple of minutes after he left and now is sunny again...good grief...that's really changeable!!
Saw Richard Dawkins's prog on Darwin last night on morals and altruism in the selfish gene...it seems, in his opinion, that we can transcend the savagery of the law of the jungle by using our brains...and was impressed by how kind and considerate human beings are to one another, but it's also clear that some brains have a lot more work to do to transcend our primal instincts with the tendency of many to attack their fellow human beings savagely still if feeling threatened...he did speak to one African Bishop in an evangelical church who is opposing the display of ancient bones and skulls of early hominids in East Africa because it is suggesting that they are our ancestors and he doesn't believe we descended from apes, but are a unique creation of God...so difficult to persuade some people that we are the fifth naked ape in a long line of evolutionary changes stretching back some three million years...next week will be fun, he's challenging the churches with their insistence of denying evolution and maintaining that creationism is right because their religion tells them it is...think he's going to be knocking his head against a brick wall again, but clearly, he's not going to give up...LOL...
Nothing else happening today...hubby's back to work tonight so normal routine resumes...hope you have a good day, are having some sun and great big hugs to one and all...
-
- http://www.doctor-dark.co.uk
- 12.08.2008 @ 11:33:02
-
- http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 12.08.2008 @ 11:35:27
Oh, should have recorded it...was worth watching...
-
- http://menomamauk.blog.co.uk
- 12.08.2008 @ 11:49:49
The sun is shining here too.
I dare not say anything else.
Hugs and kisses -
- 12.08.2008 @ 12:25:14
I like Dawkins. He really carries the fight to the enemy and is happily prepared to leap into the lion's den.
Good for him!
Tom.-
- http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 12.08.2008 @ 12:50:57
Yes, have a soft spot for him...emailed him once about his contribution to my breaking away from the church, which did play a part in it and got a very nice letter back congratulating me for breaking the brainwashing...LOL...also wrote to him about human sexuality and our inheritance of that part of our natures from our ape ancestors, particularly the bonobos...I was surprised to hear his answer, it was basically why try to connect ape sexuality with human sexuality...I would have thought it, of all parts of our primitive nature, would be studied by him, but I think it's too much of a hot potato for even Dawkins to tackle...particularly as bonobos have an extremely varied sexual life including sex with the very young, with male to male and female to female and mass sex...also lie facing each other and clearly get orgasms...was a bit disappointed in his response but can't have everything....GBHs...XX
-
- 12.08.2008 @ 13:13:24
It's great that he took the time to reply at all. Far too many famous people either can't be bothered or choose not to. I suspect he has enough on his plate with the religion business without tackling sexuality too.
Tom.-
- http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
- 12.08.2008 @ 14:24:34
Yes, it was nice of him...but the problem of ignoring sexuality in humans when he's pushing the selfish gene so strongly is that he's neglecting one of the driving forces of the selfish gene, and I don't see how it's possible to ignore it...he mentions the factors in nature that make some animals or birds have excessive ornamentation like the peacock's massive tail and as Darwin concluded in the end, it was solely there to attract females, which is the reason it has retained them...the female brain deciding the construction of the peacock rather than the other way around...but that doesn't in any way cover the inherited sexuality of humans...I think his reluctance may because of the climate today with regards to sexual behaviour in humans particularly paedophilia, which, in bonobo groups, is practised as a natural act...it's likely that over the centuries with the rise of religions in tribal groups sexuality fell under the auspices of priests and shamans and deviant sexuality became forbidden thus cutting off natural inherited instincts in humans to mate with all ages and sexes, and we've ended up with the mess we're in now...this is not to advocate paedophilia but to suggest that it may not be such a sickness after all, but an inherited primitive tendency that some individuals haven't been able to rise above...it's also strange that lesbian relationships today in both males and females have polarised with males being unable or unwilling to mate with females and vice versa for the females, while in the bonobo groups it was again a natural part of their sexual behaviour and they mate with male to female as well without the need to have any separated off as we have in humans today...all this might be learned behaviour in our case because of the long ban on any other form of sexuality apart from heterosexual relationships, and has now become part of the brains of particular individuals...it's a hugely complex subject, which I think is largely being ignored...GBHs...
-
- 12.08.2008 @ 14:49:15
Yes, I think I'd agree with all that.
Tom.






The_Walrus
Pro

I wanted to watch Dawkins. Son whinged and got cartoons. I played bouzouki loudly nearby. That will learn him.