[ExI] de Waal

[david]

On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 12:06:27 -0800
<spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

> Think of religion as a kind of technology that gets people moving and acting
> in focused and disciplined unison.  I know it leads to the controversial
> notion of group selection in evolution, but I have been a believer in group
> selection ever since I read Darwin’s description of it.  That whole notion
> makes sense to me, how you can simultaneously have individual selection and
> group selection acting at the same time.  
> 
> 
> spike
> 

Spike, 

Have you ever read 'The Extended Phenotype' - Dawson's follow up to 'The Selfish Gene'?  
I found it the more enlightening read to be honest. Once you grok the concept
of the unit of evolution being the replicating entity itself , the rest of The
Selfish Gene' just followed naturally.  'The Extended Phenotype' extends that
into areas that were not as obvious, such as modifying environments, group
selection, and indirect selection.

-David