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M,
>>>"For example, how could we say our traits 'evolve at different rates' unless their rates are measurable?"
I think that biology can't conform as easily to society as society can conform to biology, and so I did not mean to suggest we should gloss over the whole of society to focus on biology (evolution).
Perhaps I should have said "developed" instead of "evolved."
The measure I'll use is not really a measure at all; the measure of how each trait -- emotion & intellect -- adapts to the other (an entirely self-serving, subjective measure). But here goes, anyway:
Intellectual discovery can adapt to emotion, so long as emotion allows intellectual discovery to continue. But rather than adapt, emotional reactions often work to suppress intellectual discovery.
On the one hand we have a vast accumulation of knowledge, and on the other hand we see the inevitability of death, and realize that we cannot see beyond death.
Given that we all "grow up" during the most emotional times of our lives, we should not be surprised at the stagnating power the collective emotion holds over the collective intellect.
Becoming "adults" at the tail end of the emotional rollercoaster of adolescence, I think, causes many people to associate the impulse of strong emotions with achieving ultimate maturity. Emotion is quite a valid and necessary function, but when it isn't examined any deeper than the initial impulses it causes, there is a danger that a person will permanently hold an unhealthy association between impul;se and objectivity.
The last big step, that final platform of (intellectual and emotional) growth – into "adulthood" comes too soon, in accordance with societal demands, IMO.
>>>"what shall we do in the meantime, while we're not 'ready for these issues?"
I don't have a problem with religious people, so long as they don't try to suppress intellectual discovery. I agree with you that many people need religion, but I disagree that it's an issue "we" must all work on together.
The notion that the "we" overrides the "me" is dangerous. Live and let live.
-LH |
