factual

Group Selection Reframed as Ecological Competition

Dawkins is skeptical of group selection; he prefers to reframe Darwin's suggestion that cohesive cooperative human groups outcompete others as a form of species-like ecological competition—analogous to the gray squirrel driving the red squirrel extinct—where, for example, a militaristic religion rewarding martyrs might spread as a group/ecological effect rather than via true group selection.

factualpending

Speaker

Richard Dawkins

Evidence Quote

a group that say has a has a warlike aggressive god like yahweh... that kind of religion might spread as a kind of group effect as a kind of species effect an ecological competition

Source

174 - Life MindMaking Sense with Sam Harris
Created: 6/14/2026, 2:37:27 AM

My Notes

Loading notes...