A few conservative Catholics are fond of citing the “demographic solution” as the advent of ideological joy in their lives. I wonder what those same pundits would say to the evolutionary thumbs-down to selfishness and narcissism?
Religion foil Richard Dawkins favored the “selfish gene” theory, a notion that we are at the mercy of our genetic codes, who influence, guide, force, and even spend us in order to ensure their survival. Dr Andrew Coleman is a skeptic on translating this (or any survival mechanism) into a glorification of self-centeredness:
Darwin himself was puzzled about the co-operation you observe in nature. He was particularly struck by social insects.
You might think that natural selection should favour individuals that are exploitative and selfish, but in fact we now know after decades of research that this is an oversimplified view of things, particularly if you take into account the selfish gene feature of evolution.
It’s not individuals that have to survive, its genes, and genes just use individual organisms – animals or humans – as vehicles to propagate themselves.
So be kind, sister and brother traditionalist/conservatives. Otherwise you might be joining the canvas-n-polyester crowd in obsolescence.
