[ExI] NYT ninny

[Damien Broderick]

The endless stupidity is breathtaking:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13brooks.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=login>

<Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to 
have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment.>

What, like <bricks are not merely small and oblong. Instead, opera 
houses seem to be round and enormous.> ?

<To these self-confident researchers, the idea that the spirit might 
exist apart from the body is just ridiculous. Instead, everything 
arises from atoms. Genes shape temperament. Brain chemicals shape 
behavior. Assemblies of neurons create consciousness. Free will is an 
illusion. Human beings are "hard-wired" to do this or that. Religion 
is an accident. >

An accident. Keep the really dumb piece of bullshit for the end. Has 
this man never heard of "adaptation," or "exaptation," or 
repurposing, or, I don't know, natural selection by differential 
survival of phenotypic variants?

<I'm not qualified to take sides, believe me. >

Yeah, I believe you.

<I'm just trying to anticipate which way the debate is headed. >

And I fear he's right.