Does altuism conflict evolution by self preservation?

Question

According to previous anwers of my questions, morality is defined ultimately by the "altruistic" nature of mankind according to athiests who generally believe evolution. Laws of evolution should determine that the main focus of each individual should be self preservation. How can altruistic nature (selfless belief for the welfare of others) coincide with the law of self preservation? How could an altruistic brain pattern survive the process of evolution? This is an intellectual question, not a religious one. Please only answer if you have an intellectual specualtion, not if you are merely attempting to debunk beliefs of other people.

Answer 1

Although I completely subscribe to science and evolution, I think that these things -- as well as everything else in a world where the 'self' is seen as a real concept where people are individual personalities and consciousnesses, separate from everything else -- are in the domain of an ego/self thought system. In that thought system, we have ego-based altruism, where people do good because they see it as part of the self-concept they look to aspire to and/or because they realize that a model of behavior the supports treating others well is beneficial to them in that it makes for an easier ride for them. That said, I think there's a level of compassion and 'real' altruism that are only realized when the concept of the self is completely done away with -- there's an identification with others and a realization of suffering. Along the way to this complete eradication of the self, there's different degrees of empathy and compassion. And all of this is outside the realm of the model of the self -- which includes all of the things we see and the scientific and religious models we have (including evolution).

Answer 2

I think this is a conflict, and an interesting one at that: We are programmed to survive, the survival of the fittest, even when we are first conceived we have beat out all other millions of semen to be chosen as the one to be born. Nature does this so that only the strongest chosen could survive well.
But now we are evolving differently, aren't we?
Being selfish is natural as this enables us to survive better. I've done this in this past that I've felt bad for, only because I was backed up in a corner in life and it came down to the other person or myself. I chose the benefit of myself.
Anyway, going back to how we are evolving differently, I believe we as humans (a lot of us) are also capable of great compassion. Compassion is spiritual. Spiritual is selflessness.
I believe that for some reason, this really is the next step in evolution, just a new form of it; we are heading to new level of existence.

Answer 3

The altruism is emotional, whereas the self-preservation is instinctual. The human brain has developed to a point where rational thought can overcome instinctive behavior, and emotions can greatly affect our actions. That is why evolution has all but ceased for the human race-- emotions prevent people from choosing predominantly strong humans to procreate with. Rather, they tend to ignore physical body much of the time and instead procreate with those whom they have formed emotional bonds with.

Answer 4

Evolution is a biological process of adaptation to environmental changes-I think it has very limited relevance to questions of human morality. Human society has only existed for a few thousand years so morality and altruism are products of human social interaction in comparatively recent times which doesn't really have any bearing on the question of evolution.

Answer 5

We homo sapiens have evolved the cognitive abilities to estimate what the results of our actions will be. We have also evolved self-awareness. I believe that after we evolved those brain functions, we developed the altruistic tendencies you see in us.

Other social creatures also have the ability to "go without" in order to preserve the group, it is not a uniquely human function. We just developed the ability to sit around and think about why we do it.

Answer 6

You start out with two false propositions... which is not a very good start. There IS NO 'law of evolution' and there IS NO 'law of self preservation'. Individuals have an 'instinct' for self-preservation... but it is well known to give way to other motivating factors; consider a female leopard protecting her cubs against a larger predator.

Cooperation, altruism and love are innate properties of human existence... a more sophisticated version of the social organization that you can see among pods of dolphins or orcas, packs of wolves, lion prides and troops of chimpanzees. Moral consensus, moral conscience and mutual empathy are evolved survival traits. These are social constructs... the social lubrication that allows people to exist together. People come away with the misconception that they don't exist, absent religion. The religious puppet masters try to perpetuate that idea, in order to protect their conduits to wealth and power... but that is a canard. This has to do, entirely, with human nature.

Evolution is a contest between genes... NOT between individuals.

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"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." ~ Steven Weinberg
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Richard Dawkins - The Root of All Evil Part 2.1 (moral behavior)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mGLPViVW5ms

Richard Dawkins - The Root of All Evil Part 2.6 (evolution basis for morality)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mGLPViVW5ms&mode=related&search=

Answer 7

Well for one thing, you can't look at altruism as being so black and white. Perhaps think of it as one end of a continuum, with selfishness at one end and selflessness at the other. Most of us probably know people who fit in many different places along that continuum. Hold on, I'm going somewhere with this.
So at one point on the continuum, somewhere around the middle, we have people who care for the welfare of those who care for the welfare of them. In this situation, a certain degree of care for others enables others to care for you, which is of course useful for self preservation.
Perhaps this idea laid the foundation for altruism. Ultimately, however, I think it stems from our ability to think things through, rather than acting purely on instinct.

Answer 8

Altruism can factor into self-preservation most certainly. I take care of my parents in their senior years, my children learn by example to take care of their parents. DItto with friends and neighbors. Cooperations is a large factor in survival.

Look at lions, wolves, hyenas, chimps; all social animals who presumably don't need to have religion for their populations to cooperate and survive.

As they say: "It's good business practice.".

Answer 9

Laws of this kind are not absolute. Some mothers (Andrea Yates, for example) kill their own children. (Survival of the sickest) I, on the other hand, would die to save my child. (Altruism)

Answer 10

See 'Philosophy'.