From: BillK (pharos@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Feb 13 2009 - 16:30:51 MST
On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 10:52 PM, Matt Mahoney wrote:
> It has. Nearly all cultures prohibit to varying degrees sexual activity that does not lead to
> children. This includes prohibitions against nudity (unique to humans), whether that means
> penis gourds or burqas.
>
That's not what you originally claimed.
You claimed that the 'best' ethics encouraged survival to such an
extent that our ethics today are because only the 'best' survived.
I replied 'Well then, why do we have so many different ethical systems
around the world?'
Survival of the fittest cannot possibly explain the wide variety of
human ethical systems.
It may explain the removal of the absolutely worst features, like,
say, eating your children.
But that is a much smaller effect than you claimed.
>
> Where did you get the idea I made such a claim?
>
Because you claimed that we have no choice in our ethics. You said
that we believe our ethics because all the other ethics died out.
Which I say obviously disagrees with the current world situation.
Humans can choose their ethical systems. And a lot of that is
tradition passed down through culture and history. Not because
alternative ethics died out.
BillK
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