Why are we so obsessed with monogamous fidelity?
Interpretation
The quote questions society's fixation on the idea of monogamous fidelity, suggesting a need to explore its underlying reasons.
Richard Dawkins questions the societal obsession with monogamous relationships, prompting a reflection on why fidelity is held in such high regard. This quote invites discussion about the evolutionary, psychological, and cultural factors that shape our views on monogamy and fidelity, suggesting that it may not be a universal or necessary ideal in all contexts.
In practice
During a lecture on human relationships, this quote can initiate a discussion on the nature of commitment.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
As a kitten does what all other kittens do, so a child wants to do what other children do, with a wanting that is as powerful as it is mindless. Since we human beings have to learn what we do, we have to start out that way, but human mindfulness begins where that wish to be the same leaves off.
Our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self acceptance.
When Catherine told me about this (tragedy nearby), I could only say, shocked, "Dear God, that family needs grace." She replied firmly, "That family needs casseroles," and then proceeded to organize the entire neighborhood into bringing that family dinner, in shifts, every single night, for an entire year. I do not know if my sister fully recognizes that this _is_ grace.
For me, living means I can be responsive to the other person. It means I can show my emotions and my feelings. Talk to them. Feel with them.
I do not think homosexuality is immoral.
When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.
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