I highly doubt our common ancestors lived in social Altruism. It is easy to look at the past through rose coloured glasses to pick and choose what we like.
When I said "common ancestors" I was referring to the ape. Chimpanzees are extremely altruistic and consoling.
"Our evolved brains empower us to rebel against our selfish genes"-Richard Dawkins
Hmm... but what do we do with that empowerment. How many people even think about this stuff?
What do we do with that empowerment? We are altruistic, caring etc. That's precisely what Dawkins is saying in that quote.
There's obviously bad people in the world that are empowered in vicious ways, but that has nothing to do with what Dawkins is talking about. This empowerment that he mentions, gives us the capacity to be the exact opposite type of person.
Huxley was just for a laugh BTW, Fred :-). He popped into my head because there was mention of him in a documentary and I watched on Thursday.
