Survival of the fittest does not mean survival of the most aggressive.  That is clear to biologists, but apparently is not so clear to many politicians and political philosophers.

What the theory of evolution says is that those members of a species that have the most offspring will pass on their genes to those offspring.  Those who die before they reproduce will not pass on their genes to their offspring.  That is pretty obvious isn't it?

Fitness does not mean aggression or selfishness.  It means fitness.  Cooperation, sharing and love can often be more important to survival.

Dogs are an interesting example.  They survive and thrive and pass on their genes because they are more placid and less aggressive than wolves.  People choose to take care of dogs and their puppies, but choose to hunt and kill wolves because they are afraid of them.  In the case of dogs, fitness to survive involves being lovable to humans, not being aggressive.

Lets look at humans, and our ape ancestors.  Humans, and apes, live in cooperative groups, packs, tribes, communities.  Being a member of a group is necessary to survival.  In tribal societies, exile was one of the very worst punishments.  A human  alone in the wilderness has a very low chance of survival.  Survival for a paleolithic human meant survival of his tribe.  The bonds of friendship, sharing and love within the tribe created the social cohesion needed for survival.  On the other hand, when attacked by wild animals, aggression was necessary to survival.

Depending on the situation, survival of the fittest could mean survival of the groups with the most loving and cooperative members, or survival of the groups with the members most willing to be very aggressive with wild animals attempting to eat their children.

Music on You Tube

Mellow and pretty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68xjjR5ztoQ

How does an atheist deal with fear of death?

I'm not exactly an atheist.  Agnostic might be a better word, but if you get into the philosophy and the literal meanings of the two words it is hard to make a distinction.  That would be a lengthy discussion for another post.

I think most modern educated American's are agnostics, no matter what they call themselves.  Most people who call themselves believers actually have some doubts.  They hope that God exists, and know their social life will be easier if they just say they believe, but deep down they have doubts, they are not sure, they are agnostics.

Most people who call themselves Atheists do not believe in some particular narrow definition of God, but if the meaning of the word gets expanded you eventually run into some definition of God that the Atheist considers a possibility.  Expand your definition of God, and deep down they are agnostics.

I could be wrong about this.  We would have to do in depth questioning of lots of believers and atheists to really know.  Again it would be a lengthy discussion for another post.

Now we come to death, and the fear of death, the topic of this post.

There are at least two different things we group under the classification "fear of death".  One is the immediate fear of death that causes us to jump out of the path of a speeding truck.  That is a good fear.  It keeps us alive.

I'm going to talk about the existential fear.  The nagging horror that one day we will cease to exist.  I had this fear at one time.  Now I don't.  I'm going to try to describe the transition and make suggestions about how others might do this.

The answer for me came from the direct experience that I don't really exist as one solid stable being who began at birth and will end at death.  What I actually am is a constantly changing wave of awareness.  The millions of bits and pieces of sensation, thought, emotion that I refer to as myself are arising and passing away, moment to moment.  I am dying and being reborn moment to moment.  Actually there is no "I", but that nature of our language requires a subject, object and verb, so to write about this without using convoluted language I will  use the pronoun "I".

The last paragraph is a description of an experience.  Just reading the description will not give you the experience and will not remove the existential fear of death.  How do you arrive at the experience?  How do you experience the illusion of the conventional idea of self, which is the basis of the irrational, existential fear of death?

One brief glimpse of this reality happens to lots of people, but does not remove the existential fear of death.  How do you repeatedly, and for longer and longer periods of time, dwell in the state of freedom from the illusion of self, so that it becomes integrated in your deep view of reality and frees you from the fear of death?

The thing that has worked for me is vipassana meditation.  It originally came out of the Buddhist tradition, but it requires no belief in anything religious or supernatural.   It is currently used my the medical community for dealing with chronic pain.  It is used by psychologists for dealing with anxiety and stress.  If you go into it deeply enough, it may change your view of who and what you are, and may remove the fear of death as you have the direct personal experience that there is no one to die.

- to be continued

You should kill yourself, but probably not yet

At age 90, my father spent the last year of his life sitting in a wheelchair, not knowing who he was, having his diapers changed, in constant pain.

Many times when he was younger he had said to me, "If I ever get like that, just shoot me". The problem was that when he actually did get like that, if I had helped him end his life I would have probably gone to jail. 

I remember talking to the woman from hospice a few months before my father finally died. I said "If we kept a dog or a cat alive in this condition, we would be considered cruel, crazy or both. If we don't keep a human alive in this condition, we risk jail." She looked around to see that no one was listening, then agreed, then started telling me horror stories. 

You can't expect someone else to end your life for you. You will probably need to do it yourself, or just sit and suffer for a few years and then die slowly. If you want to avoid that you will have to kill yourself.

The problem is knowing when to do it. You need to do it while you are still able. Once you are in a nursing home stuck in a wheel chair you will not be able to do it. On the other hand you don't want to do it too soon. You might miss out on some good living.