Is Morality an Evolutionary Advantage?

by Kelley

Saturday morning I came downstairs, early, to find my oldest son on the couch watching Man of Steel.

Again.

MoS is one of those flicks in the cupboard under our tv that gets pulled out and re-watched frequently, like Zootopia or Big Hero 6. The Incredibles, too — until it got stepped on (the boys also leave things laying around, frequently. Imagine that…😜)

I don’t watch every repeat with them — I’m not so good at sitting down for two whole hours — but I’ll park my fanny for ten minutes here, five minutes there and reacquaint myself with the storyline.

Today Superman was in a fight with one of General Zod’s henchmen, and she clocked him in the face and explained that having a sense of morality made him evolutionarily weaker, and that ‘evolution always wins.’

My husband the scientist agreed. Now I agree with the ‘evolution always wins’ sentence, but I can’t, I can’t, I CAN’T believe that connection to others doesn’t play a major role in our survival and ability to flourish.

But like I said — my husband is a scientist, so if I’m gonna say it, I’d better find some evidence to back it up. Here’s the first article I read, from ScientificAmerican: