altruism

Open question to all free thinkers: In Ayn Rand's interview with Mike Wallace in the 50's (availble online) she mentioned that she can find no rationale for helping one who is less fortunate then oneself. It appears that Ayn's philosophy on this point is an extreme version of survival of the...

I have been reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins as of late, so his ideas of genetic survival have been going through my head. He includes a list of behaviors that appear altruistic, but can be explained by gene survival, and this includes living in groups. To carry the idea to...

Although it is widely accepted as given that behavior does not fossilize, the results of behavior often do. And one behavior that does leave a mark in the fossil record has to be a slap in the face of Creationism. I am referring here to altruism. The creationists say that the human tendancy...

I feel almost ashamed to start this thread - me, The Atheist, standing up for christianity (and other religions)! I'd been having an ongoing discussion with hammegk about who is more charitable - christians or atheists and I really, really wanted it to be atheists! Alas, it ain't! Christians...

Greetings. I've been lurking on here for quite a while, finally time I posted. As I was driving home on Xmas eve, I caught part of the audio version of A Christmas Carol on the radio. Having just finished reading Atlas Shrugged a couple weeks ago gave me an interesting perspective on it. I...

It is the philosophy of taking from those who have by force to give to the loosers who do not! Max