Quote:
Originally Posted by freeztar
Ok, it seems I was confusing what you are talking about (social evolution) with what I thought you were talking about (biological evolution)?
Let me see if I understand you correctly.
You are saying that biological evolution is not responsible for the rise and fall of social constructs, but some other natural selection is ocurring (social evolution). Did I get that right?
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It is hard to communicate when the words used have multiple meanings.
I worked hard to work up a glossary that gives only one functional defintiion for each important term. That keeps me from being confused, but it does not make the process of communication easier. I do not use the term "social constructs." Perhaps YOU would elaborate there. Does the term really have specific meaning or is it perhaps a way to avoid meaning---like "
cultural evolution?"
If biological evolution has occured within various publics, races and societies had been biological, it would back up the social Darwinists who used to say they could or have created a super race. Timbukto used to be a manficicant center of Islamic civilization in Northwest Africa a few centuries ago. Now it is a destitute region. All these societies rise and fall without any biological reason. The Ancient Egyptians had the most powerful civilization on Earth. Now, they can barely rule their own nation, yet they are the same people. You know all this.
The religions that bonded people into those societies were vast ideological systems that were rigid enough to make of them a sort of biology-like organism that could be subjected to natural selection even though they had no genes and chromosomes and, hence no biological evolution taking place. When they were new, all these vast and closed systems of thinking, religions, were advanced for their time and were thus enthusiastically taken up to bring to the people a sense of unity and togetherness. The less fit religious cults were selected out---as Christianity won over a host of competing religions. As the society grows and spread, marginal and primitive societies are pushed to the periferal areas and ultimately die out. When the big new society grows old, its religion is no longer advanced and the whole system weakens. Eventually it, itself, will be replaced by a newer Word view system or religion.
This is why we have had religions as long as we have had language and society. There is no other reason. A new mainstream society creates a society geared to progress and ultimately outgrow its own ideology. All life has the seeds within of its own destruction. Life is just postponed death.
charles
