Rape
 

I had an interesting discussion with Gender studies students today and we discussed how rape has been researched to be something biological which is inbred into men since the caveman days. It was a way of them insuring survival as a human race. Animals are not different today. Obviously it's highly inappropriate in todays society but I just wanted to see your views on this. It goes along with the idea that humans are not meant to be monogamous.

Do we fight against these biological conditions to be what is morally right? Is this because we are highly intelligent beings?

rape doesn't violate any biological rules, only cultural rules. but the same can be said of all crimes.

many of the behaviors that are punishable in modern society occur naturally in the animal world. rape, murder, cannibalism, etc.

not sure about the idea that our cultural rules point to intelligence though. if we actually stopped and thought about things, we would base our moral values would on individual biological imperatives. "good" would be attributed to anything that promotes the propagation of an individual's genes, and "evil" would be attributed to anything that hinders it. in this system, monogamy and abstinence would be evil, and sexual promiscuity would be good...

Monogamy is cleary a human invention.

I do think it's wrong though to assume that rapists are just doing something natural, sexual assaulters tend to be mentally ubstable and often have a background of abuse and sexual repression or rejection.

I can definitely get behind the idea that monogamy goes against human biology. I mean, we all know how rarely monogamous relationships suceed.

That argument is really perplexing, and kind of hurtful. I think most people (including myself) have been taught that rape was a learned behavior influenced by societal factors and could be prevented.

This... just makes me lose a little faith in humanity.

"Highly intelligent beings" is a bit of a stretch for the most part. In the words of the late George Carlin,
"We are merely partly-civilized beasts with baseball caps and automatic weapons."

I must say, I never really expected to see a thread with the title "Rape". But since I came in here to check it out, and you actually posed an interesting question regarding it, here goes.

It's not cool. I understand the propagation of the species aspect, but that was a long time ago. If anything, we need to be stemming the growth of the population. In other words, we're not rebuilding after the flood, here. There's too many people.

But even on a social level, to take somebody's humanity in such a way as to force them to have sex, to that the point that sometimes they can't even bare to be around men anymore. I think that speaks for itself. We've been in need of a dose of evolution for quite some time now.

"We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."
-Albert Einstein

And with that, I'm off to work.

I'm in no way condoning it. I am just curious to how our biological processes can still penetrate through modern life.

rape is not learned. it's not a social disorder. it makes perfect biological sense. the only purpose in life is the propogation of genetic matter. we are evolved from a non-biological self-replicating molecular system, and human beings along with the rest of life on earth are no more than complex machines that continue along the same path.

it is in male organism's best interest (biologically) to impregnate as many females as possible and spread his seed anywhere he can. of course from a female organism's perspective, it is in her best interest (biologically) to be extremely selective, since she has but one chance every 9 months to produce healthy offspring. so in this sense, rape is good for males, and not so good for females (biologically speaking). perhaps this explains why most rapists are men...

Exactly, biological conditions change and we adapt to new environments, new standards of living. We are supposedly civilized now and know a lot more, are lot less ignorant than we were many years (and centuries) before. To move forward and improve as a race, insure our ultimate survival we have to be smart, we have to make change.

It's like man's way of getting around this selectiveness, to ensure his seed is spread whether the woman selects him or not. However, we are not primitive anymore.

No, I got that from what you were saying. You explained everything pretty well. Sorry if you got the impression that that was directed at you, I'm not so eloquent right now.

The information in the first paragraph just left a really bitter taste in my mouth.