On this beautiful, sunshiney Sunday, I was listening to an episode of Radio Lab on my roof while waiting for my clothes to dry. The show was on the science of doing good: for all of Charles Darwin's bleak, formulaic 'survival of the fittest' theories, how could science explain why people risk their lives for others? It was a good episode to take in with a healthy dose of vitamin D. It seems absurd and sterile to break down our altruistic instincts to science, but hey, that's science. Sometimes, after all, we just want to know why. A scientist in the 70s created a formula relating why we're willing to risk our own survival for others. It breaks down, essentially, to Darwin's same theory: I'll risk my life for my sister because she's carrying 50 percent of my same genes. If she survives but I don't, 50 percent of my genes will still be carried on. So I'm four times more likely to help my sister than my cousin, and so fourth. It really all comes down to us trying to help ourselves out. Obviously that doesn't explain a lot of actions -- why strangers risk their lives for people they don't know. But it does give us a nice, clean answer. I guess that's what science is. And, along with my extreme distrust of bunsen burners, one of the reasons why I was never too interested in science. I love the magic of not knowing. Chalking it all up to goodness, or faith, or magic. I'm fairly certain magic is the only way to explain the Shazam app and microwave ovens.
I do think there have been a lot of dramatized, or even sitcomitized (stick with me) stories around whether all good deeds are truly selfish. I, for one, am not sure I think it matters. Does it matter if the only "real" reason I would do anything to protect my little sister is because of some deep desire to pass on my superawesome genes? Or if the reason I help a stranger with their luggage is so I feel better about myself? I mean, karma is a pretty selfish way of looking at things, in some ways, but its net result is a good one. Just because it all comes down to selfishness and science, doesn't mean it's any less valuable. Love, sex and family might all be about passing on my genes for future generations, but they're also what make this life worth living.
