I've just been tagged by a couple of nice people, T&A and Fiery, and as I have a few minutes up my sleeve, even though I'm not wearing sleeves, thought it would be fun to get it done.
Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book with more than 123 pages.
2. Go to page 123 in the book.
3. Find the first 5 sentences.
4. Post the NEXT 3 sentences.
5. Tag 5 people.
Next to me are a pile of books purchased early last year when we first started looking at Atheism.
There is Richard Dawkins a plenty...."Unweaving the Rainbow"..."The Extended Phenotype"..."The Blind Watchmaker" and the one closest to me is "The Selfish Gene". Of all of the books this is the only one I actually started to read after the God Delusion....but it's heavy going and I have to admit I didnt even get to page 123....and as its the closest one, this is a bit I havent even read, and it interests me, so I may get back to this book quite soon...
"I am treating a mother as a machine programmed to do everything in its power to propagate copies of the genes which ride inside it. Since you and I are humans who know what it is like to have conscious purposes, it is convenient for me to use the language of purpose as a metaphor in explaining the behaviour of survival machines.
In practice, what would it mean to say a mother had a favourite child?"
OK thats the three sentences, but I thought it may have whet your appetite as well, so here's another little bit up to the end of the paragraph...
"It would mean she would invest her resources unequally among her children. The resources that a mother has available to invest consist of a variety of things. Food is the obvious one, together with the effort expended in gathering food, since this in itself cost the mother something. Risk undergone in protecting young from predators is another resource which the mother can 'spend' or refuse to spend. Energy and time devoted to nest or home maintenance, protection from the elements, and, in some species, time spent in teaching children, are valuable resources which a parent can allocate to children, equally or unequally as she 'chooses'."
Interesting and thought provoking, but out of context like this, perhaps a little difficult to grasp....get the book, oh and thanks to Richard Dawkins for allowing me to promote this book :-D
I'm looking at who has already been tagged, and hey its all over, all the people I want to tag have been tagged....dont worry, you know who you are and I'll get you next time ;-)
Just thought of something.....maybe Reg Golb is still lurking, now just for interests sake...whats the closest book to you Reg?
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8 comments:
awwww Thump. He's around. Posted it on my blog. It is rather... revealing.
Risk undergone in protecting young from predators is another resource which the mother can 'spend' or refuse to spend.
The consequences of homeschooling.
I saw globbies comment, but couldnt understand it, what am I missing??
I felt like I was always on alert for predators with my two boys.
But...ah mothers, arent we wonderful duplicating machines :-D
He couldn't be bothered typing it all out. It was some tech manual of some kind.
ZZzzzzzz......
As for worrying about your kids, I bet that's something that Mum's will always do no matter how old their child.
The fact that some parents don't share that instinct or behavior is reprehensible.
I agree Fiery, its very sad to see people lose this instinct. I see it every day in my local area, parents who dont give a damn about their kids. Kids running wild then being yelled at or whacked for it. Or you see kids hurting themselves and the parent takes no notice whatsoever, that shocks me. Parents with no idea how to parent.
I think there should be some sort of evaluation/education process to get a license to have kids....in my dreams!
AARRGGGHHH!!!!! Stupid blogger ate my comment. GRRRrrrrrrrr....
...
Getting the government involved in licensing people to have children. A rather slippery slope I fear. Where does it end? It starts with mandatory classes but how soon until you have to prove genetic compatability, until not only are only the best and brightest "allowed" to breed, but become forced to breed while the lesser mortals are forcibly sterilized.
I think people who have children should take the responsibility seriously and educate themselves to make rational good parenting decisions. But you can't force people to think.
But you can't force people to think.
If you could, there'd be no more theists
Fiery
I agree with you totally...just a little pipe dream:)
Hey who would want the government messing around with that and all its implications, but when I see obvious bad parenting and realize that nothing will ever get done about it...the pipe dream kicks in :-/
OZAtheist
;-)
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