by Steve » April 18th, 2007, 6:19 am
My impression reading the article is I don't think its conclusions necessarily follow from its logic.
It may well be in physical evolutionary terms individuals don't matter, only the reproduction of genes. But he hasn't proved that there is an evolutionary advantage to higher mortality of the individuals after they reproduce, all he could prove is that there isn't necessarily an evolutionary advantage for long lived individuals after reproduction. And there is a statistical fact that goes against this idea. Men are able to reproduce for longer in their lives than women can. So if there was a big evolutionary advantage to maintaining life up through reproduction and then ending it after reproduction ceased, you would expect women to have shorter lifespans than men. But this isn't the case, the opposite is the case.
Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!