[ExI] Function of religions

spike spike66 at att.net
Tue Sep 28 02:45:11 UTC 2010


 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org 
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of 
> Keith Henson
> ...
> population as a whole didn't change in size hardly at all, it 
> was Malthusian, living right at the limit of the ecosystem, 
> or rather the current farming technology to support it.
> But certain groups in the population, particularly the middle 
> to upper class reproduced (spread their genes) far more than 
> the poorest class...  The selection was intense... Keith

Keith this reminds me of a Pulitzer prize book I read a few years ago that I
really liked, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.  He describes growing up in
abject squalor, in 1930s and 1940s England.  Three of his siblings died in
infancy or early childhood of disease, weakened by persistent shortage of
food.  After reading that story it is easy for me to imagine how a couple
centuries of those conditions honed and sharpened a people to a fine edge.

spike






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