I'm not saying that our genetic predisposition and what is best are the same things, but humans have evolved as a social, cooperative species, not solitary like tigers.
....Your're correct in stating that the murder rate is down over the last few decades.........legalized abortion
As you say, the whole evolution debate is best left to another thread, and probably is best not even broaching for the sake of our mods...
Yeah, those discussions can really devolve into unpleasantness.
Devolution?
... but I got to thinking the other day about we as a species and our ultimate purpose on this planet. naturally, ...
The duty of man is too love man and his makerThe Duty of Encouragement
J. R. Miller
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There are few things to which we need to train ourselves more diligently and conscientiously than to the habit of giving cheer and encouragement. To many people life is hard. It is full of struggles.
It has more of shadow than of sunshine.
Its duties are stern and severe. Its burdens press heavily.
We know not how many of those whom we meet have been overcome in the struggle of today or of yesterday, and are cast down or almost in despair.
We know not behind what smiling faces are sore hearts.
We see not the secret sorrows that weigh like mountains upon many a gentle spirit.
We do not understand with what difficulties the paths of many pilgrim feet are beset.
There is not a heart without its bitterness.
Work is hard.
Burdens press heavily.
Battles are fierce, and are often lost.
Hopes fade like summer roses, leaving disappointment and dead ashes. The constant and invariable gravitation of human hearts is toward discouragement and depression.
An honest watching of our own inner experiences for a week will verify all this, and our personal experience is but a reflection of what is going on all about us.
A few lives may be more sunny than ours, while in most the shadows are deeper, the struggles hotter and the path steeper and harder.
While, then, there is so much that is disheartening, it becomes our duty to watch for every opportunity to put a little bit of brightness or better cheer into the lives of those we meet.
What men need most in this world’s struggle and strife is not usually direct help, but cheer.
A child was seen at a high window in a burning building.
A brave fireman started up a ladder to try to rescue it.
He had almost gained the window, when the terrible heat appeared too much for him.
He seemed to stagger and was about to turn back, when some one in the throng below cried, “Cheer him!”
A loud cheer went up, and in a moment more he had the imperiled child in his arm, snatched from an awful death.
Many men have fainted and succumbed in great struggles whom one word of cheer would have made strong to overcome.
We should never, then, lose an opportunity to say an inspiring word. We do not know how much it is needed or how great and far-reaching its consequences may be. One night long ago, during a terrible storm on the coast of England, a clergyman left his own cosy home, hurried away to the headland and lighted the beacon. Months afterwards he learned that that light had saved a great ship with its freight of human life. We know not to what imperiled interests and hopes our one word or act of encouragement may carry rescue and safety. Nor do we know what destinies may be wrecked and lost by our failure to speak cheer.
The duty of man is too love man and his maker
"love thy neighbor as thy self"
with love of ones self and love of others comes happiness in happiness comes cheer.. for the love of others we will share the cheerful spirit!
All living things have only purpose: To preserve the survival of one gene's.
To preserve the survival of one's genes all living things must procreate in some way or another.
To have the energy to procreate, all living things must have energy.
To get energy, all living things need to consume something, or a combination of things, whether it's sunlight, cardon dioxide, nitrogen, water, bacteria, plankton, microscopic organisms, plants, animal cells, or animal parts.
Any given species will use whatever is the most optimal way to get energy to get energy and procreate, based on the resources available.
If this means attacking human blood cells, killing the host in the process, so be it.
If this means being rooted in the ground and drawing water from the soil and energy from the sun, so be it.
If this means eating nuts and berries, so be it.
If this means attacking and eating other animals, so be it.
If moving from a solitary hunter status to a societal arrangement (herd, flock, tribe, village, city) makes it easier for a species to find food, prevent themselves from being killed, and thus lasting long enough to procreate, so be it.
If one's local resources make it more efficient for a society to move from a hunting and gather nuts and berries system to one based on agriculture and domestication of animals, so be it.
All lifeforms kill in some way or another as means of getting food to provide the energy they need to procreate. It's all about preserving, as Richard Dawkins so eloquently said, "the selfish gene."
It is in the nature of all lifeforms to exploit the food sources around them with no conscious efforts toward making sure that the life substances they're eating replenish themselves. That's partly why 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct. Preserving life and managing the continued existence of food resources is a recent phenomenon.
Thus, we're born to do nothing other than eat and multiply. Everything else is the luxury package.
J-I-B
So the theory here is that the murder rate can be reduced by killing people off before they're born?
Not intending to take the convo off the rails, or get on your case, but that quoted factoid by you really jumped out at me as a logical contradiction.
As you say, the whole evolution debate is best left to another thread, and probably is best not even broaching for the sake of our mods...
I guess I should rephrase my comment. I don't know that man has evolved to be violent, rather, I think it's a learned behavior that is passed down over generations. children learn it from other children who learn it from their parents, etc, etc. again, nature vs nurture
Deadly violence is normative in all of nature - I think the question really is: Why does man so value peace?
My world view is Christian, so I would dispute the evolutionary foundations of your premise (though not the overall idea that man is a killer by nature), but I am not inclined to debate that on this thread.
Here's the study:
Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime
I was just stating that it's one of many proposed theories.