Evolutionary Flaw of the Day 01/24/06

Today's Flaw is very philosophical in nature but holds just as much of an argument as everything else posted to date. Today's EFD is about Altruism. Throughout the course of human history, there have been numerous occasions of a human (or sometimes even an animal) risking its very life to save that of another. Such tales inspire great stories of love and war and turn many into heroes. The problem that evolution has with altruism, however, is that it has no place in the evolutionary scheme of things. In light of natural selection, the selfless virtue of altruism should have been wiped out ages ago. Such "risky" behavior tends to prevent the altruistic individual from passing on its genes for altruism. If evolution is correct, selfish behavior would have eliminated unselfish behavior because the number of unselfish organisms would have slowly decreased over time. For example, say there were two species of dog. We'll call them dog species x and dog species y. For this illustration, let's say that dog species x was altruistic and would risk its life to save other dogs from predators, and that dog species y was completely selfish and would think of no such thing. As time went on and members of dog species x died to defend other dogs (including those of dog species y), the number of dog species x would decline. Those who gave their lives to save others would not be able to pass on the genes that make one altruistic. As a result, dog species x would gradually die out because dead dogs of species x are unable to pass on their genes. Meanwhile, dog species y will continue to flourish because they are not the ones being killed by the predators. Their genetic lines will continue to grow in number while those of dog species x die. Eventually, there will be no dog species x left because they will all have died in defending other dogs, including dog species y. Their altruistic genes will never be passed on to any more generations of dogs. Altruism would become extinct, and yet it survives to this day. Altruism contradicts evolution and natural selection.
~Tribal~