February 12th is the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. Darwin’s
theory of evolution by natural selection has been called the biggest idea ever.
I agree -- it is the biggest idea ever. But the biggest part of Darwin’s big
idea is often over-looked. It is the part about evolutionary psychology.
On this anniversary, it is
a good day to ask, Do you believe that evolution is
true about human psychology – about your mind? Can evolution explain you?
Darwin’s theory of
evolution is a big idea and it hinges ultimately, not on fossils or geology or
on genes and sub cellular complexity, but on its ability to explain the wonders
of your mind.
You see, Darwinian
evolution requires a psychological continuity -- an unbroken line of mental powers and
capacities that extend backwards to ancient ancestors in the
Pleistocene Epoch (about 200,000 years ago). Evolution, as an explanation for human origins, describes every mental power and capacity --
consciousness, morality, our capacity to make decisions and complex plans, language, music, art, religious experience, love, empathy,
altruism, hate, greed, dreams, and everything else that makes us human as "packs of neurons"a bunch of neurons that evolved to solve the problems of living
faced by our ancestors way back when.
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