Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Something amiss in the genome?


The ultraDarwinian enterprise is to explain all basic biological facts  via evolutionary theory.   That is certainly a worthy and fruitful research-program, but cannot well be taken for a theorem.
In a chapter entitled “Why do we smoke, drink, and use dangerous drugs?”, a well-respected author writes:

This old evolutionary framework has gone awry in us.
-- Jared Diamond, The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee (1991), p. 172

It is none of our purpose here to evaluate or criticize his argument:  vide op. cit.  Presumably the notion of superstimulus is here in point
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus ).
I cite the passage only because of its striking parallel to earlier contributions by C. S. Lewis (along with more cryptic remarks by G. K. Chesteron) to the effect that something appears to be broken in human sexuality.   Wide-ranging discussion here:



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