From: Sasha Chislenko (sasha1@netcom.com)
Date: Sat Dec 25 1999 - 17:07:13 MST
At 06:05 PM 99/12/20 , Zeb Haradon wrote:
>You forget to mention the obvious - do dogs, cats, earthworms, have the
>cognitive capacity to realize that the sexual act they are engaging in will
>result in reproduction? Do they think "I would like some offspring, I should
>go have sex", in the same way that they might think "I want what's in that
>garbage can, I should go tip it over", I doubt it. In fact, I think humans
>are the only organism that EVER has sex with the intention of reproducing,
>even if that only happens occasionally. (this idea is not mine originally -
>read it in some newspaper column a few years ago, by that woman who has the
>highest IQ ever measured, I forget her name)
Must be Marylin Vos Savant.
Interestingly enough, many human societies seem not to get it
where the babies actually come from - maybe comes from high
frequency of both sex and babies in the cultures, and the time
delay between the two. Lots of myths in various cultures about
Gods of the river inserting the special seed into a woman, and
other "equally valuable" silliness.
Surprisingly, even in a relatively advanced society (like, the U.S. :-) )
with facts already perfectly known and proven, a huge number of people
still believes that God's will has to do something with the conception
of the body, and definitely - with the "soul". Add to this people
who haven't [yet?] gone to school, and those with intent to make new
sentient being as the last thing on their mind when they have sex,
and you get the picture where only a tiny fraction of conceptions
are the result of intentional acts...
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Sasha Chislenko <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html>
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