Golden Rule Gene

I see what you're getting at ... a species that was entirely selfish would not last long. And I think we see throughout the animal kingdom, even where mating competition is fierce, that there appears to be some "rules" by which the competitive males play. For instance:

• They don't generally kill off competitor's females
• They don't generally kill off competitor's offspring
• They don't generally kill off each other except perhaps during mating competition. Even then it appears there's a governing force that allows injury, perhaps, but not death.

What role does consciousness play in that? I mean, would a bacteria with a mutated gene that plays a "golden rule" role think about not killing off another bacteria?

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My original post about nobody really believing in randomness went askew ... what I was really trying to get at was that I don't believe anyone really believes there is no creator. Oh sure, many will claim to be atheistic, and some even convincingly so. But I think there's a small corner of their being that wonders, just a little bit ...

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Pete Douherty is much in the news of late -- at least in the gossip rags -- for two things: one is his on-again/off-again relationship with Kate Moss; and the other is his seemingly incurable addiction to hard narcotics. He's been arrested it seems every week for the past half year.

Talk about a broken soul ... the behavior he exhibits is surely a sign of it.