Jay Hanson wrote in response to some of my comments: You describe a process where "behavior" acquired after birth is genetically passed on to descendants. That's not how evolution works. Except for physical mutations (e.g, radiation or pesticides), genes are determined before birth. The term "Selfish Gene" comes from the "process" whereby genes that tend to replicate themselves (contribute to sexual reproduction, e.g., lying) survive, while those that don't, tend to die out. Perhaps my powers of reason have deserted me. As I understand evolutionary theory, changes in genes favour those behaviours that increase the potential for survival. How is a gene to know which code is survival oriented unless a human lives that life which that gene prepared him for. Or do genes just randomly give us life with a variety of behaviors which they think will enhance their survival. A dysfunctional human going through puberty is as capable of surviving and reproducing as a "normal" human being. Perhaps at the gene level, there is a telepathy operating in which a gene in the testes of a young man who has a behavior signals the gene going out the penis to take this characteristic with it for the next human clone - oops I'm getting off into Isaac Asimov territory here. For 400 years we have known that breeding influences behavior. In 1576, the earliest English-language book on dogs classified breeds primarily on the basis of behavior. For example, terriers were bred to creep into burrows to drive out small animals. Behavioral classification of dogs continues today. [ p.p.. 58-59. Plomin et al; BEHAVIORAL GENETICS, 1997] I'll agree that breeders, an outside agency to be sure, have had much success with creating big and little dogs, or dogs that hunt rabbits or herd sheep. However in evolutionary theory, as I understand it, there is no outside agency, unless we consider a metaphysical God who is a breeder by nature. Now, you might state that it is chance that creates different gene changes and I might answer, how do we know that chance has done a very good job. Perhaps 10,000 years ago, chance gave us the war gene and in 2020, that's the end of the species - some great evolution that would be. I would call it a great regression, of course I'm human and I wouldn't be here because I would have been evolved out of existence by chance. In the spirit of an opposing view, Thomas Lunde
