quote:
To speculate that evolution has opted for every trait known to man, and to assume that we have been given that trait to fulfill a distinct niche automatically according to need, is comparable to making evolution 'intelligently' able to predict need and to measure population, etc.
Well, I don't agree that these speculations are comparable to making evolution "intelligent". I do agree, though, that a lot of the speculation about the biological basis for human behavior is silly and nonproductive.
It is a fair question to ask how much, if any, human behavior is due to biology, and how much of this biological nature is due to genetics.
Before we can even intelligently ask what, if any, evolutionary advantage this or that behavior provides, one must first demonstrate that the particular behavior is, in fact, due to biology and not simply learned cultural behavior. When it is determined that the behavior is biological, then one must determine whether it is actually genetic in origin.
Then one can wonder whether the behavior was actual adaptive during the evolutionary history of our species, or whether it is merely an "inadvertent" side effect (a "spandrel") of other traits that were adaptive. One can also ask that if it were adaptive, was it adaptive during the recent history of our species? Or was it adaptive long, long ago in the evolutionary history of our species, a left over "vestigial behavior", like the appendix, which hasn't yet been completely eliminated?
Actually, if their god makes better pancakes, I'm totally switching sides. --
Charley the Australopithecine