Yabby,
You imagine the whole of life is random and uncontrolled evolution and you call it natural selection. That chemicals in the brain override human behaviours. Wrong! Natural selection involves the will to choose.

The fact is humans have will and can change the chemical balance in the brain by their thought responses. If you are sad, watch a few comedies, laugh a little and you will find the mind chemistry has changed. Our thought life, our fears, our hopes and dreams, our anger etc all produce the proteins that improve or damage brain health. These are produced by the will or responses to thoughts. It is true that some cannot overcome or prefer to not overcome their thoughts and their brain chemistry fails good mental health.

That is why the NT teaches faith and hope, and discipline of our thought life. Philippians 4: 8 "Finally; whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anyfting is excellent or worthy of praise - think on these things. Whatever you have learned, received, or heard, or seen in me develop by practise; and the God of peace will be with you."

I've been a dairy farmer and animal breeder for 39 years of my life I can tell you I have smelt more than roses in some surburban garden. I have witnessed or cared for over 20,000 animal births during that time and I can tell you in every case protective mothering kicked in when the calf, pup or foal was born. It is only human mothers who by their will, or by anothers imposing will decide to murder their infant.

Quote, "The endorine systems of most mammals are in fact pretty similar. Oxytocin affects the behaviour of many species, not just humans. Natural selection matters, its happening around us every day.
Perhaps you need a trip to the countryside and out of the ratrace
to get back to real nature. "

Philo, modern brain imaging technologies have made it possible for us to have glimpses of the brain at work.
Nothing wrong about what I wrote at all, as brain chemistry
is involved in all brain functions.

If you are interested, Daniel Goleman’s “Emotional Intelligence” will explain to you in layman’s terms, some
of the things that have been discovered and bring you up
to date a bit.

Look at the brain how it evolved. The brainstem, which governs your automatic functions, breathing etc, your limbic system, where emotions are generated and your neocortex,
where you can think about what you feel.

Every thought is coloured to a larger or lesser extent by emotions, as you are always feeling something. Those circuits
are largely interconnected and often compete with one another. The more you feel, the less you think. In a rage,
you are not thinking straight for example.

Yes we can learn to think about what we feel, but it doesent
always come naturally. That’s why so many emotionally engulfed people run into all sorts of problems in life.

You are correct, oxytocin triggers at birth, that does not make
all mothers good mothers. Take a flock of sheep for instance.
Some mothers will run off in fear, some will run off chasing food, rather then staying with their young. Some are doting moms, who stand and defend their babies, even against
predators. There are differences in sheep moms, as there
are in human moms.

Few human mothers murder their infants, for embryos
and fetuses are not infants, but potential infants.
Human mothers can reason that if they don’t have the resources to raise the offspring, suffering for the whole family could be the outcome. So they can think ahead and can think
of avoiding suffering. Other species don’t have that option.

The old testament tells me to kill my neighbour for working on
the Sabbath, but I like my neighbour. So I’ll ignore the old
testament there, just as I think that there are those who know
more about brain function, then the writers of the old testament.

Excellent comments Philo…

Yabby, your posts are…predictable, lacking in substance or evidential proof and as contradictory as ever…are you forever in a rage…can’t think straight?

RE:Your ‘old testament’ arguments, you really didn’t understand your Catholic faith did you?

…embryos and foetus’ aren’t infants…but they are babies…abortion kills them...

Your claims of 95% retained faith remain statistically and evidentially unproven and…based on past and present religious trends, inaccurate. Explain break-aways like Anglicans, Lutherans, Christian Outreach, etc…or for that matter, religious converts. 5%?...not according to the evidence…people search until they find their own peace… Those Catholics who seek an understanding of Catholicism and practice their faith, are the ones who retain it...it may be different for those ‘beliefs’ where non-conformists are threatened with physical punishment or death if they leave…the retention factor would be considerably higher for them…

‘The influence of natural selection on your ancestors is showing, thats all.’

…and therefore Yabby, equally on you…I wonder how long your ancestors would’ve survived if they shared your life ‘choices’?...?

Your incorrect assumptions about my present situation tell as much about your sad desperation to justify your personal ‘choices’ or chemical fate, whatever you want to blame…as they do about the results of those poor choices on other individuals and generally.

So for you, it’s all that uncontrolled chemistry that’s to blame…additionally your genetic ancestry and environment…all overriding your less-than-free-will.

You can thank your 500-generations-ago grandmother too…your ancestors weren’t all eaten by lions, bears or your evolving ancestors either…she must’ve been a ‘high oxytocin motherly type’ or no Yabby either. We apparently share genetically superior hunter-type ancestry and faith-by-birth also…or perhaps your less-than-able-hunter forbears may have enjoyed the generosity of my ancestors who took pity on them, ensuring they ALL survived, then raised their subsequent generations to do the same…much like feeding African nations now…

Your misdirected analogy between Rupert Murdoch and hunter-gatherers is unsupported as the hunter-gatherers would’ve killed to eat immediately with the ‘tribe’, sharing what they had amongst family and tribe alike…and only as they needed it. Rupert Murdoch isn’t noted for taking only what he needs...

tbc...

Cont…

…nor for sharing his bounty with others…nor for that matter, for acting in the best interests of the nation or ‘tribe’…

Take the present corporate-mentality…increase profits at the expense of the ‘masses’, the environment and the national interest…extravagantly party, party, party for tomorrow we die...

e.g., Sydney Harbour's environmental disaster...ignored by governments ALL!

Given that scenario…'cave-man' Rupert would have sent the best hunters out to hunt, then eaten the bulk of the beast with his own family and given the hunters the leftovers…discontent and hunger would have ensured that either, he would have:
1 …suffered the fate of the beast at the hand of his tribe,
2 …become lazy and unfit so that he couldn't run from predators, etc. or:
3 …lost his hunters who were too hungry and tired to catch the beasts and so would have been eaten themselves…somewhat like the scenario with the corporates today.

You see Yabby, Rupert’s brand of ‘leadership’ which is unproductive in itself, and dependent on fleecing the efforts of others…would have suffered the sort of fate that increasingly more and more corporate entities are facing today when governments can no longer support them because of the weight of public opinion…e.g., Enron, HIH. This is the only analogy - Without being propped up by government policies ... increasingly being captured by corporate election donations, corporates today would suffer the same fate as your fictitious character would have suffered in his tribal situation.

The unbridled corporate structure is as unproductive and damaging to the individual or national interest as is unbridled communism or any of the other –isms…like globalism…a balance or happy medium between both is the ideal…and all are dependent on a sense of justice and equity, a sense of fairness and charity to those who are vulnerable as well as incentives for those who are able and strong…you would have heard it preached from the pulpit often in your youth perhaps…

As Philo indicates…your theories on evolution are as nonsensical and contradictory as your theories on life…

NEWSBREAK: Woman suing abortionist after baby delivered in home toilet ALIVE...died in ambulance...Tragic!

Lol Meg, the mountain of evidential proof for evolution theory
is so large, it makes Everest look like a mole hill. Every major
university on the planet teaches it, even the Catholic Church
accepts it. If you and Philo have never bothered to educate
yourselves and understand that mountain of evidence, that is
your problem, not the world's or my problem.

Embryos and fetuses become babies as they develop, they
are not yet babies. Check your semantics, before you become
emotionally engulfed.

My 95% claim is accurate. People stay Xtians, or Muslims,
or Hindus, or Buddhists. The fact that many have left the
Catholic brand of Xtianity, often because of its crazy
contraception policy, means that essentially their
beliefs remain the same, with a bit different flavour.
A bit like a coffee drinker who drinks a different brand
of coffee, he remains a coffee drinker.

I'm still not sure what you deny about evolution theory.
That your ancestors didn't live in caves? That you didn't
inherit their genes? That these genes don't matter?
That the earth is really only 6000 years old, as the
fundies claim?

My point about Murdoch was simply to explain why he
is like he is, I passed no personal opinion of what
I think of his behaviour. Before you pass comment
on the world around you, it makes sense to understand
it first of all, a point which it seems neither of
you have reached yet.

Old man Murdoch is still getting girls pregnant and
having babies in his late 70s. In evolutionary terms
he is still spreading his genes around. If that is
a good or bad thing, is a totally different debate
and I have said nothing about that at all on here.

Conveniently Yabby, you dismiss all but one of your ‘topics’ of interest…evolution is accepted as a THEORY only…there is a difference between that and your obsessive commentary. The Catholic Church accepts that even if evolution THEORY were so, at some point, your bonobo cousins would have been ensouled along the 'evolutionary path'in order to ‘humanise’ them as thinking, reasoning beings – not bonobos any longer…I have no problem with that THEORY, but there are many other possibilities also…simple as that Yabby.

‘Embryos and fetuses become babies as they develop, they are not yet babies’

Embryos and foetus’ are terms to define stages of human life Yabby…the next stage of development is an infant, then toddler…’baby’ covers all of these stages. Babies are no less HUMAN at each of these stages of life than an adolescent, adult or geriatric…therefore killing babies is as abhorrent as killing any of their fellow humans at each of the other stages of life.

Once again facts have disproven your imaginings…

Let’s see how your imagined 95% retentions measure up…a few notable examples, e.g., Cat Stevens (Christian to Islamic); Anthony Mundine (ditto)…who’s the model who converted to Islam in Bali again…Michelle Leslie…shall I continue Yabby? I attended school with an Islamic girl who later converted to Christianity and married a Christian – she was forced to leave all friends and family and break off contact with all of us for fear of retribution from her brothers, if they found her…they had endangered her life on three occasions already.

Still no statistical substantiation from Yabby though…you see we all have free will and choose our own path in life, irrespective of our race or creed.

From your internet perusal of subjects of the mind Yabby, you clearly feel that qualifies you to practice your own ‘bush’ brand of psychology in cyberspace…ROFL… : )))) ROFL : ())) Clearly your posts tell a different story…and indicate you have little grasp of ‘the world around you’…in fact you might like to rephrase that to an understanding of the world in your increasingly narrowing mind…

tbc...