A Nobel Prize winner is warning that the forces of natural selection in evolution instilled mankind with an innate "original sin" that – if not overcome – may lead to humanity's extinction.
-- From "Nobel winner: Natural selection threatens humanity's future" by Clint Witchalls, posted at CBS News 2/28/11
"Natural selection has resulted in traits such as group selfishness being coded in our genes," said Christian de Duve the co-winner of the Nobel prize for his research into cellular structure. In a Q & A with NewScientist, de Duve, who is a professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and at Rockefeller University in New York, argues that those same traits which once helped ensure the survival of the species have fostered a sort of "here today, damn tomorrow" myopia that threatens our very future.
"These [traits] were useful to our ancestors under the conditions in which they lived, but have become noxious to us today. What would help us preserve our natural resources are genetic traits that let us sacrifice the present for the sake of the future. You need wisdom to sacrifice something that is immediately useful or advantageous for the sake of something that will be important in the future. Natural selection doesn't do that; it looks only at what is happening today. It doesn't care about your grandchildren or grandchildren's grandchildren."
To read the entire interview above, CLICK HERE.
From "Nobel scientist has new spin on 'original sin'" by Drew Zahn © 2011 WorldNetDaily 3/5/11
De Duve has written a book, "Genetics of Original Sin," in which he explains how he sees the intersection of his theories with the Bible.
"I believe that the writers of Genesis had detected the inherent selfishness in human nature that I propose is in our genes," he told NewScientist, "and invented the myth of original sin to account for it."
. . . while the Bible prescribes redemption and regeneration of the human heart through Jesus Christ as the solution to mankind's inherent selfishness, de Duve proposes another answer: population control.
"It is a simple matter of figures," he says. "If you want this planet to continue being habitable for everyone that lives here, you have to limit the number of inhabitants.
"Hunters do it by killing off the old or sick animals in a herd, but I don't think that's a very ethical way of limiting the population," he continues. "So what remains? Birth control. We have access to practical, ethical and scientifically established methods of birth control. So I think that is the most ethical way to reduce our population."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
