From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Nov 21 2002 - 14:48:52 MST
Max M wrote:
> Our ethics should not be based on genetics.
>
> To make an extreme point: "If forced pregnancy and rape is a good
> way to spread my genes, would it then not be god morale to rape
> and impregnate as many as possible?"
>
> Obviously not!
True, obviously not, but then healthy evolved humans do not commit rape.
As we agree, we have the genetic trait of compassion. That genetic trait
instructs us to avoid the temptation of forcible sex. We put rapists
behind bars because the majority of humans are compassionate enough to
consider it a crime.
> So it is not as simple as to say that if we have a genetic
> advantage in doing something, it makes for a sound set of ethics.
I think there is no genetic advantage in rape in the modern world
because the genetic advantages of compassion and concern for others is
greater.
This subject of rape and evolution is however an interesting one. I
believe evolution can give us some insight into the reason the crime of
rape still exists in modern society. According to some paleontologists,
there was a time in our paleolithic past in which women were scarce and
which men kidnapped and raped women from neighboring tribes. This could
explain why rape is prevalent in the modern world: it may be a (mostly
suppressed) evolutionary impulse. Someone wrote a book about this a few
years back (sorry I don't recall the title or author). I was skeptical
until I did a medline search and was shocked to learn that the brains of
rape victims exhibit a significantly higher level of dopamine, a
neurotransmitter normally associated with the experience of reward. In
those terms it could make sense from an evolutionary perspective that
the genes of prehistoric females would "want" their hosts to be raped,
and thus trigger the reward circuitry, even if the women themselves felt
consciously repelled and victimized by it.
This idea above is potentially so terribly controversial that I fear I
may regret mentioning it.
-gts
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