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July 16, 2013 • 9:04 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I saw this posted a few days ago on Facebook and thought it must be a hoax. So I did a bit of research and found that it is actually real so had to repost it. How cute can a moth possibly be anyway?
Cuteness is a stray kitten’s way of not being dropped-off at the canal. How about some thoughts on the evolutionary benefits of cuteness specie to specie! In my long internet book ‘Origins of Belief and Behaviour’ I speculate that there is a kind of universal personality-type to be found in mammals, birds, reptiles amphibians, and even some worms and insects. They are all able to show cuteness when young and vulnerable, and other creatures seem to respect that cuteness. Even my voracious and killer cat would probably play with this moth rather than kill it as he does with other insects on the farm.
But curiously that personality-type is not shared by the third of the human specie who have a different type of consciousness; one that convinces them that they can best self-actualise by finding a place within a real or imaginary hierarchy of authority. I call that group ‘Drones’. Once within that hierarchy, they ‘obey orders’. That allows them to tell lies, exploit others, and even murder with a free consciousness. The largest sub-set of that group are the religious. Religion allows them to use lies, to distort facts and to misuse information, because it is all part of obedience to the authority-structure.
I have an old book written by an English pastor in 1811 which details first-hand how Catholics in Portuguese-India burned non-believers alive, and this eighty years before the birth of my father!
Oh, dear! Such gloomy realisations upon the sight of a pretty moth.