Many of the genetically programmed behavioral tendencies which served us well when we roamed the African Savannah 100,000 years ago are not all well suited for life in our modern, urbanized world; The desire to identify with a group and hate other groups; unquestioning conformity; aggression; selfishness.The results of these programmed behaviors are all too familiar; fanatical nationalism, violence, intolerance, perpetual war, the habitual splitting of governments into opposing factions, and the toll of psychological stress on the individual.
"The environmental and genetic methodologies we are researching may offer solutions to these problems," said Dr. T. Scanlon, the Director of the "Social Evolution Initiative" at beautifuliving. "Essentially, these behaviors slow our personal evolution, cause great pain & turmoil in the world-at-large, and impede the pace of our advancement as a species."
As the biologist and Angelican priest Arthur Peacocke observed, "The biological evolution of man has now been superseded by [his] psycho-social development." The solutions to these problems are not simply genetic but they are not wholly social either. What is clear, though, is that as a species we keep repeating our mistakes & it is time for us to intervene & move forward on our future paths both as individuals & as a community.
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