The Drive For Altruism Is Hardwired

Dekortage writes "The Washington Post is reporting on recent neuroscience research indicating that the brain is pre-wired to enjoy altruism — placing the interests of others ahead of one's own. In studies, '[G]enerosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food or sex... Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable.' Such research 'has opened up a new window on what it means to be good,' although many philosophers over recorded history have suggested similar things."

Comments

Re: Bit O' Trolling

[Black Parrot]

Specifically, I've been getting a bit tired of hearing the old "science disproves the existence of a higher being" B.S. that's constantly thrown around. I recall it starting with the baseless Human Genome Confirms Evolution (archive) story a few years back. The author of the article was quick to jump to the conclusion that finding fewer genes than expected *proved* that man must have evolved. What has evolution got to do with a higher being? Science has disproved lots of specific myths about the nature of the universe, which means lots of people's religious beliefs are partly wrong, but that hardly disproves the existence of a higher being.

If we are in a Universe put in motion by an extra-universal being, then the laws of nature are *His* laws of nature. They work according to how He says they should work. Ergo, anything we find is evidence of god, 'cause that's how he implemented it?

It seems to me that if man is hardwired with an sense of altruism and a desire to believe in a super-being, there can be no other answer to this question than the existence of a Creator. That's an absurd claim.

BTW, why did your god give the other apes a sense of altruism, but no desire to believe in a super-being?

For that matter, how many people have a built-in desire to believe in a super-being? Most people believe it for the same reason they believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. The only difference is, the people who encourage the beliefs never own up that it's a fantasy.