Are Scientific And Religious Explanations Incompatible?

[Warren Stupidity]

31. Your words:

"the good" is what natural selection chooses as the most beneficial behavior for the species in question.


When given the example of extinction of other species for our benefit, you ran away from that by claiming that it wouldn't be in our long term interest,

In the long run human caused extinction is a symptom of ecological degradation

but of course it could be, and most likely has been exactly that in our past. While such acts might be a symptom of other undesirable behaviors within your framework, they need not be, and so elimination of competing species can be "the good" within your definition, and, at least to me, morally reprehensible.

When given the example of intra-species genocide that increases the survivability of the species you have simply avoided explaining how that would not meet your ethical requirements, and in fact you downgraded your original claim:

As for culling Anglo-Saxons, that would not be "the good" from the Anglo-Saxon perspective.

now it seems that 'the good" is derived from units less than "the species", that instead 'the good" can be derived from what benefits a sub group, without any explanation of how competing sub-group "goods" don't wreck your proposed ethical system.

I really don't think your position is defensible, which is why you are now off claiming I am making up your position.

But there are other huge flaws with your original statement. How can "the good" being wholly derived from "what natural selection chooses as the most beneficial behavior for the species" actually function as an ethical system? For example, why shouldn't I murder the person next to me? How do I run that through your generator of "the good" (what natural selection chooses as the most beneficial behavior for the species) and come up with an answer? It might very well be the most beneficial behavior for the species for me to murder the person next to me, and if so, according to your system, that is what I should do.