EvC Forum: Morality! Thorn in Darwin's side or not?

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Topic: Morality! Thorn in Darwin's side or not?

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Message 2 of 438 (504429)
03-28-2009 8:43 AM

Reply to: Message 1 by Cedre
03-28-2009 8:28 AM

Hi Cedre,

This is okay as is, but I see two problems, let me know if you want to address them. First one:

Cedre writes:

I have weighed many efforts by many sincere researchers who have themselves been baffled...

The result of the effort of the "many sincere researchers" in the field of altruism is not bafflement. Whether you agree with it or not, it isn't bafflement. Maybe you would like to conduct more research?

Second one:

The point of my babbling is that we shouldn't strive to be good to others and even worse feel good after being good.

This concluding sentence seems to come out of the blue and not have anything to do with what went before. You seem to have forgotten to include the arguments leading up to such a conclusion.

--Percy

This message is a reply to:
	Message 1 by Cedre, posted 03-28-2009 8:28 AM		Cedre has replied

Replies to this message:
	Message 3 by Cedre, posted 03-28-2009 9:05 AM	Admin has replied
	Message 101 by straightree, posted 04-03-2009 2:32 PM	Admin has not replied

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Posts: 13014

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Message 4 of 438 (504438)
03-28-2009 9:36 AM

Reply to: Message 3 by Cedre
03-28-2009 9:05 AM

Cedre writes:

This isn't a strange word when it comes to science, to be sure many great discoveries were a result of being baffled by a phenomena, so I don't perceive what your issue is with this word. Perhaps we diverge at the meaning of the word, I mean the normal curiosity that arises as a result of not having a clear understanding of a phenomena. Perhaps this was the confusion.

You misunderstand. The word you chose has nothing to do with it.

The field of altruism is well researched, but you described the researchers as baffled. Other words like mystified, confused, perplexed and so forth are other inaccurate characterizations of researchers who think they understand the phenomenon pretty well.

Since you seem unaware of the current state of altruism research, I thought I'd ask if you wanted to look into a bit before this thread is promoted.

Now your second point, what i meant here is that if in fact survival of the fittest is the natural order of things and what drives nature and survival than these selfless acts and states of mind should not exist but they do and everyone has them from time to time.

If you look into altruism research a bit you'll find the answer to this question. Or I can promote this now and people can explain it to you in the thread. Your choice.

--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

This message is a reply to:
	Message 3 by Cedre, posted 03-28-2009 9:05 AM		Cedre has replied

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	Message 5 by Cedre, posted 03-28-2009 9:59 AM		Admin has not replied

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Message 6 of 438 (504463)
03-28-2009 9:41 PM

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

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Message 127 of 438 (505406)
04-11-2009 8:01 AM

Let's Get Back On Topic

I had a short dialog with Cedre before I promoted the thread that touched indirectly on the issue of whether the best term for what he wanted to talk about was morality or altruism. In the end it turned out that he wasn't really interested in talking about the evolutionary origins of morality. He wanted to communicate the message that morality derives from God.

But this thread is in one of the science forums. There's an entire category of forums dedicated to religious topics, please take non-scientific discussions related to religion or God there. Thanks.

--Percy

--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

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