Survival of the nicest

The emerging notion that genes can be selfless as well as selfish suggests that working for the greater good is naturalCharles Darwin's famous theory of natural selection and Richard Dawkins' focus on the so-called "selfish gene" are among the most widely misunderstood ideas of modern times.At one end of the spectrum, creationists find the idea that we evolved from apes – or, worse still, that we can trace our lineage right back to single cell prokaryotes which emerged out of an inauspicious chemical soup of amino acids – insulting and believe that evolution is an elaborate excuse for amorality. At the other end of the spectrum, the uglier manifestations of social Darwinism have completely misinterpreted the metaphor "survival of the fittest" to justify their self-serving racist, imperialist and classist ideas. But neither Darwin nor evolutionary biologists such as Dawkins advocate the idea that cut-throat, ruthless competition is the only game...

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