My dad and I just had a religous debate, where I debated my atheist side and he debated his more christian side. His argument was somewhat typical except he said something that kind of interested me:

Humans have the unique ability to love and have compassion. A mother bear will put herself in front of her child for the first 2-3 years of the child's life, but a human mother will put herself in front of her forty year old child. I have not found this kind of blind love in any other creature, and therefore I believe that human's have been touched by some supreme being.

That's not exactly what he said but I am sure it is basic enough to point out faults in it.

What do you guys think?

Surely the human love and compassion for children can be argued to be simply an extension of the offspring-protection instinct?

This extension may have come about as a result of genetics, or s a product of societal development.

Longer maternal instincts do not indicate our being touched by a supreme being. We're also more intelligent than all the other species. Does this indicate we were touched by a supreme being? No. It just means that we are different from the others. Of course they are all different from one another as well.

If your supreme being goes by the name of "natural selection" then maybe you've got something.

My parents kicked me out when I was 19, so I don't think his analogy applies to everyone.

Humans mature at a much slower rate than other mammals. We are not prepared to fend for ourselves until much later in life. The offspring of abandoning parents died, so they could not become abandoning parents themselves. Offspring of parents who stuck around and defended them longer were able to live longer and have children themselves (which, in turn, had longer care by their parents).

quote:

---

Originally posted by ytrewq:
If your supreme being goes by the name of "natural selection"...

---

Mine does.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nyk:
My parents kicked me out when I was 19, so I don't think his analogy applies to everyone.

---

That doesn't mean that your mother still won't protect you. Hope I'm not missing something here.

Nox

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nyk:
My parents kicked me out when I was 19, so I don't think his analogy applies to everyone.

---

Make sure you don't have any kids. And try to die fairly young too. Natural selection is a slow process, so sometimes you gotta help it out a little.

your statement is an overgeneralization. however, we are sentient, intelligent, creative creatures. that could have something to do with it.

I was watching human instinc on TLC the other night and the subject was "natural born heroes". I don't exactly remember everything but it was quite interesting and it explained why a mother would risk her own life to save her child's.

I don't want to repeat what I think they said because I would most likely pass along the wrong information. If you want your answer that's where you'll find it.

Your father is incorrect. This behavior has been seen in many other places in the animal kingdom.

I refer you to the following:
http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=binti http://veederandld.20m.com/primnews/10699.html

There are various other cases of similar experiences with animals, for which I am too lazy to search. Any other information I could give you would be purely anecdotal, so I won't bother.

ahh debating of views... the best way to end a relationship. Remember, everything that can be argued against religion can be argued for it because of its extreme illogical ideas. Since Religion relies on faith, it needs no proof other than stubborness.