Re: poly: Egan's Diaspora

Hal Finney writes:
> A simplistic evolutionary analysis would say that no young man would ever
> join a religious order which required him to be celibate, yet obviously
> this happens.

Not that *none* would do it -- only that *few* would do it.

As with the '$100 on the sidewalk' joke, don't fall prey to
statistical arguments. They only work for the mass of
people. Evolution only says "the bulk of the population are unlikely
to be celebates for prolonged numbers of generations", not that "no
young males are ever going to be celebates".

Perry
Received on Wed Mar 25 04:12:28 1998