...but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18
"Your brain evolved to hoard supplies and shame others for doing
the same (The Conversation). Stephanie Preston at the University of Michigan easily wins Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week for waving the e-word Evolution like a magic wand. She tells the naive why store shelves are empty during the coronavirus epidemic.
To see how senseless this is, consider that Ms, Preston has justified selfishness as normal and adaptive.
You act the way Darwin makes you act. Darwin becomes the little devil on your shoulder, tempting you to hoard supplies and shame others who do the same, just like squirrels fighting over nuts. It gets worse; not only that, she portrays you as powerless to be unselfish, because you are a pawn of how “evolution has wired” us.
You have no free will. In Darwin’s Stuff Happens Law, whatever is, is right.
So why even write an article about this?
Is it because Preston wants you to change your ways? No! You are powerless against the Dork Side of the Farce. It would be more merciful for Preston not to tell you about your fate. And for all you know, she is a pawn of evolutionary forces making her write stupid stuff.
Her ‘explanation’ may give her readers some warm fuzzies, like a shaman at a campfire explaining to the tribe how humans emerged from the fire, and the fire gives them wisdom.
But ask yourself if “evolution” really performed any service in this tale.
It would be much kinder to tell them that
---God made us in his image with moral responsibilities.
---He wants us to be responsible instead of lazy,
---but also commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
That’s not “adaptive” in a Darwinian sense; it’s morally right, and we have the free will to choose the right and shun the wrong, to pursue truth and resist irrationality."
CEH
"Your brain evolved to hoard supplies and shame others for doing
The media is replete with COVID-19 stories about people clearing supermarket shelves – and the backlash against them. Have people gone mad? How can one individual be overfilling his own cart, while shaming others who are doing the same?‘Tis a pity this woman has wasted a third of her life without thinking coherently.
As a behavioral neuroscientist who has studied hoarding behavior for 25 years, I can tell you that this is all normal and expected. People are acting the way evolution has wired them….
But hoarding is actually a totally normal and adaptive behavior that kicks in any time there is an uneven supply of resources…
People will continue to hoard to the extent that they are worried. They will also continue to shame others who take more than what they consider a fair share. Both are normal and adaptive behaviors that evolved to balance one another out, in the long run….
That’s how the human species evolved, to get through challenges like this together.
To see how senseless this is, consider that Ms, Preston has justified selfishness as normal and adaptive.
You act the way Darwin makes you act. Darwin becomes the little devil on your shoulder, tempting you to hoard supplies and shame others who do the same, just like squirrels fighting over nuts. It gets worse; not only that, she portrays you as powerless to be unselfish, because you are a pawn of how “evolution has wired” us.
You have no free will. In Darwin’s Stuff Happens Law, whatever is, is right.
So why even write an article about this?
Is it because Preston wants you to change your ways? No! You are powerless against the Dork Side of the Farce. It would be more merciful for Preston not to tell you about your fate. And for all you know, she is a pawn of evolutionary forces making her write stupid stuff.
Her ‘explanation’ may give her readers some warm fuzzies, like a shaman at a campfire explaining to the tribe how humans emerged from the fire, and the fire gives them wisdom.
But ask yourself if “evolution” really performed any service in this tale.
It would be much kinder to tell them that
---God made us in his image with moral responsibilities.
---He wants us to be responsible instead of lazy,
---but also commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
That’s not “adaptive” in a Darwinian sense; it’s morally right, and we have the free will to choose the right and shun the wrong, to pursue truth and resist irrationality."
CEH