> Chimps have an apparent social convention
> that requires giving a food call when food is discovered.
> However, chimps have been observed to break this convention when
> they think they can get away with it. Further, such behavior
> may be punished by other chimps if they discover the secret
> feeding. The threshold of intelligence required for this kind
> of behavior would be that required to support the ability to
> learn social conventions and the ability to ponder the rewards
> and dangers of breaking them.
This is very interesting. The chimps treat food stealing as sin.
Christians
claim that God gave us laws so we would know what sin was. Did God
give chimp laws to the chimps or are chimps instinctively smarter than
humans? Was there a Chimp Adam who broke the law and whose sin
was imputed to the chimp race?
> If it helps to reduce confusion, we could just talk about
> suffering. Does advanced intelligence combined with
> knowledge lead to a desire to reduce suffering? Unless
> here are other important factors not considered, clearly it
> does.
Supports the social contract theory of govt. I desire to reduce
our suffering because it might reduce my suffering.
> I would be very careful of this line of thought. The atrocities
> that occur in nature would make Hitler look like Mother Theresa.
> Can you seriously condone the kinds of suffering, torture, genocide
> that goes on regularly in nature?
You gots to be kidding. Very few warm blooded animals kill their own kind
for the fun of killing.
> No. Human knowledge accumulates over the generations, intelligence
> stays the same.
Data? Have you read "The Bell Curve?"
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 26 2000 - 21:47:36 EDT