On 10/31/06, Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Referencing NY Times article. ~ Janice
>
>
> October 31, 2006
> *Religion Not Source of 'Moral Codes'
> * http://tinyurl.com/ymk5jd
>
>
> One comment [hot link]:
>
> 11 <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1729095/posts?page=11#11>
> You might want to check out the current issue of WIRED magazine. The cover
> article is about "The New Atheists" who emphatically and enthusiastically**
> *reject any connection with any type of religious ideas. Not sure how the
> two groups will get along as I haven't really digested either article
> completely yet. ... Of course none of them would consider reading Romans
> 1:18 and following. ***Just remembered that the root of "enthusiasm"
> means "in God" (as in ecstatically entranced).
>
>
>
> From the NY Times review:
Dr. Hauser believes that the moral grammar may have evolved through the
> evolutionary mechanism known as group selection. A group bound by altruism
> toward its members and rigorous discouragement of cheaters would be more
> likely to prevail over a less cohesive society, so genes for moral grammar
> would become more common.
>
> Many evolutionary biologists frown on the idea of group selection, noting
> that genes cannot become more frequent unless they benefit the individual
> who carries them, and a person who contributes altruistically to people not
> related to him will reduce his own fitness and leave fewer offspring.
>
Simply put, this is an unproven hypothesis and a controversial one at that.
What's interesting is Hauser claims that so-called religious morality is a
heritable trait while Dawkins claims otherwise in his meme hypothesis. When
opposite facts prove the same conclusion then there is something wrong with
either or both of the theories. At a minimum it is not science because it is
by definition not falsifiable. Hauser noting that religious morality is
innate makes C.S. Lewis'/Francis Collins' argument for God stronger.
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Received on Tue Oct 31 12:49:59 2006
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