been a long day
science club comes to end for this academic year.....and i have to admit it went great....
The greatest thing i feel about the whole event has been the learning, even though i was the organizer and didnt participate.
today we had the debate....as a matter of fact the debate ended up stirring quite alot of emotions in the crowd.
The first issue was a more easier one to debate on, Non-vegetarians vs the Vegetarians. One might think that its quite a difficult topic to come to a conclusion on, but i beg to differ. The reason being, there is very less emotion invovled in the issue, and thus the debate will go on smoothly, on a scientific basis, as it was meant to be in the first place. And like any debate, a conclusion doesnt have to arrived at, like in this there was no real conclusion.
As for the second issue, this ended up causing an emotional stir, since it involves alot of emotions, especially from the fairer race. The issues was 'Is it acceptable to abort a foetus that has been diagnosed to have a genetic abnormality.
Usually an issue that involves alot of emotions is arduous to debate on in a rational and scientific manner.
And well thats what happened, the participants digressed from the topic and let their emotions get the better of them.
what i find the most interesting is that to judge a debate where the topic generates such emotion is the toughest job ever, especially if we have a personal prejudice.
will sign off for today...quite tired, was a gruelling day asusal and got an economics exam tomm...
and by the way, the non vegetarians won, and the team going against he motion of abortion were also victorious. they were judged based on their reasoning ablility and argument.
so the topic is still out for debate....

Selfish gene
are'nt we all selfish?.....isn't that quality in our genes? Well, Richard Dawkins thinks so. In his book The Selfish Gene he vehemently states that we all are selfish and that altruism can only have a selfish motive. Its hard to believe at first thought that we( including animals) are all selfish, especially if you were to argue that mother's love to her kid and also the drones(male bees) sacrifice of life for the colony are a non-selfish act. But if we ponder on the topic a little bit more we would surely see that most of the answers li in Darwins message 'Survival of the Fittest'.
So to survive we have to think of a individual and not a group. so once we think about the individual, then survival has a different meaning altogether.
In a group we could see altruism, or self sacrifice, but as an individual that will not be possible, cause it would go againt the Darwins evolutionary theory of survival of the fittest.
Ofcourse, one can argue that we could be altruistic and still survive, but then we have to ask what is the motive for being altruistic. Isn't there a motive behind being altruistic.....
i've not yet completed the book...so im not sure wht Mr Dawkins thinks about this....so for now go on and think about it....are we really all selfish?