Selfishness = Selflessness...?

Scientific American recently published an article in their science news section that I found really instructive and very, very amusing.

Evolution postulates "the survival of the fittest," and that species improve over time largely due to the violent competition of life which tends to favor traits that give individuals or groups an advantage over others (and by extension, mutations which convey evolutionary advantages - leaving aside, of course, the discussion on "advantageous mutations" for another time, since such a thing does not exist...). In fact, many believe that selfishness is an evolutionarily ingrained trait that's really good for the individual and species.

It is a bloody, brutal enterprise.

So why do humans on a whole demonstrate compassion?

True, selfishness defines our race. However, in aggregate, and mostly in the individual, there is at least an echo of compassion which sure would at least seem to be contra-evolutionary.

And so, evolutionary biologists and sociologists have long been perplexed by this one (of very, very many) observable facts which sure do seem to militate against evolutionary presuppositions.

Enter Economist Samuel Bowles of the Santa Fe Institute. He's suggesting that selfishness actually equals altruism in evolutionary terms; that it's our very selfishness, ingrained in our very DNA by evolution, which produces selflessness.

...huh?

I'm selfless because I'm selfish?

Yet another example of the desperation of the evolutionist to explain away actual facts so that he doesn't have to examine his presuppositions too closely and be forced to conclude that his philosophy really has little to do with actual science.

The Bible tells us that we are created in the image and likeness of God Himself. Now, that's a shattered image since the Fall, but it still holds even in its degraded state; we love because our God loves. We sacrifice for the greater good because that's His character. And we look very much down on those who are selfish or possess other similar character flaws because these things are ingrained in us - by design, not by [start: Carl Sagan voice] billions and billions [end: Carl Sagan voice] of years of freak accidental random mutations.

Reeeeeal instructive, the lengths to which men will go to avoid dealing with the obvious...

Anyway, an interesting, amusing read...