Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Darwinian Nonsense

According to Darwin, tribes banding together with the greatest measure of selflessness and altruism would have a selective advantage in warfare against their more selfish neighbors.  Since Darwin and many of his contemporaries considered altruism a biologically based instinct, the more altruistic tribe would be able to pass on its altruism to a greater number of offspring than the less altruistic tribe.  But they would do this by killing as many members of their neighboring tripes as possible!  In this way warfare not only selected the strongest and bravest, but also the "most moral."

Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler, p.166

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