Role of Mutations

My thread didn't cover emotions, but it did go over what some see as contrary to "survival of the fittest"--morality, charity, altruism, that sort of stuff. Check out the thread for a further explanation as to how emotions could actually be essential for our survival.To give you a quick run-down--being social is good for social creatures, because it helps increase our survival. And it's not so much that we are in competition against other animals for survival that we are . . .um, okay, so I screwed that part up. It's not like we're in a race. While the hare and the coyote may help drive each other's evolution (hare's turnign white being an advantage, coyote's increased smell, just as pure guesses), they aren't in direct competition. It's more like the hare is in competition with the rabbit, and the coyote with the wolf (in those areas where the same niche is covered by the two). Okay, so I botched the explanation, but the thread on "morality and charity according to evolution" might be able to help.

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All a man's knowledge comes from his experiences

To this, it's mostly a yes. It's not so much intelligence--while we may have what is perhaps the greatest range of emotions and most complex social behavior, intelligence isn't a requirement. I would say yes to this question. If I understand you correctly, the "chemical changes" are the mutations, right? If so, it would be mutations that improved our brain, allowing for an ever more complex social interactions (in our case. Unfortunately, we don't know of any other entities that have our level of intelligence, so we've no clue if this social behavior is the norm for all highly intellignet organisms).As to your last question, we know how mutations happen. We also know why they happen, but this "why" has no intent. Hope that helps.

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All a man's knowledge comes from his experiences