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Comments by GabrielJBuckley


1. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital

Comment #167147 by GabrielJBuckley on April 23, 2008 at 5:01 pm

The "good" witches of East Africa are penis enhancers.


Just wait until they team up with the Nigerian bulk-email set.

2. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164791 by GabrielJBuckley on April 20, 2008 at 5:29 pm

Professor Dawkins you continually impress me as not only a beacon of intelligence and logic, but as an exemplar of patience, understanding and plain good manners. I hope that Mr J does you the courtesy of replying to such a well-written missive.

How did empathy evolve...does it really help organisms survive?

Unfortunately empathy is something that doesn't show up too well in the fossil record so we are unable to observe its evolution along the same lines as we might observe the evolution of an upright stance or large cranium. So any attempt to explain the 'evolution' of empathy would be a fairly judicious stab in the dark at best.

However, "survival of the fittest" doesn't solely mean "survival of the strongest" or "survival of the most ruthless". It can - and does in many observable instances - mean that organisms which display what we might anthropomorphically describe as "altruistic" behaviour benefit from that behaviour over and above those who don't.