David Wilson’s Speech on Darwin’s Cathedral Essay

The speaker, David Sloan Wilson, believes that societies function as single organisms, and morality and religion biologically and culturally evolved adaptations that enable human root words to function as single units rather than an compartmentalisation of individual unites. His lecture was a poor attempt to explain assort pickaxe, which is selection for a characteristic specifically because the characteristics put forward the reproductive success of the group as a whole, rather than solely the individual.The beginning of his lecture was not very helpful in proving anything he merely quoted several phrases from scientists and read them to the audience. I wasnt rightfully sure where he was going at this point. Then, he went on to explain examples or should I say a lack of examples, which he considered to undergo group selection. He allegedly did some sort of experiment with chickens and their eggs. He tried to say that under group selection the experiment showed that at that pl ace was an increased production of all the chickens eggs. However, within a group selection only certain individuals benefited.There was also some weird twist in this experiment, he tried selecting for the best individuals and then put them all together in one cage, and they got violent with each other and de-feathered each other, while at the same time he used the best group of chickens together in the same cage that produced the most eggs as a group. Then, he compared the group of the best selected individuals with the best group, and somehow he tried to prove his point. I dont really think anyone was convinced except for himself. It seemed corresponding the only thing he tested for was who works the best in a cage, because that situation would never occur in nature.Another example of group selection according to him had to do with bees. But, once again he was most likely wrong because it appears that bees act according to kin selection, which is selection for characteristics tha t enhance the fitness of the individual indirectly by enhancing the reproductive success of the individuals relatives, because all bees are related. There is only one female sprite bee and the rest are workers whohave no choice, but to work like slaves for the benefit of the queen and its relatives. Then, at the end of the lecture someone posed a question about how could he explain the endosymbiotic possibility according to group selection, I think this question may have stumped him, because whatever he utter didnt seem very convincing , but yet he tried to defend his point, even though the endosymbiotic theory seems to explained by many as a mutualistic relationship.He also tried to explain group selection in relation to religion. He attempted to demonstrate how religions have enabled people to achieve, by working as a unit, what they could have never done completely. Apparently, he examined specific examples of religious culture from Calvinism to Balinese water temples in hopes that his group selection theory would be confirmed, and somehow he supposedly did verify this.But all in all, I think he needs to attain more presumptive concrete research, and then present experiments that will clearly prove his point without too much doubt. If he wants people to buy into his theory of group selection he really needs more data to back his theory up with because I wasnt really impressed with what I saw, most of it was really confusing, hard to sit done, hard to believe, and didnt make much sense. He cant simply prove group selection through theory alone he needs more empirical data, so that he can prove to people he is right, instead of trying to convince us through babbling on and on about nothing, but I do give him credit for his speech.His answers and conclusions may not be correct, but at least(prenominal) he is questioning and examining things like a good scientist should do. He is obviously a firm believer in himself, and did put forth some horizon and ef fort in trying to prove his theory and he demonstrated some real courage by trying to go outside of his proclaim field of evolutionary biology into matters of religion and trying to connect the two. Even though his book may not prove his theory of group selection, the debatable title should make him a lot of money.Group selection is selection for a characteristic specifically because the characteristics enhances the reproductive success of the group as a whole.Kin selection is selection for characteristics that enhance the fitness of the individual indirectly by enhancing the reproductive success of the individuals relatives.