By Khaled Diab The emerging notion that genes can be ‘selfless’
as well as ‘selfish’ suggests that working for the greater good
is natural. Charles Darwin’s famous theory of natural selection
and Richard Dawkin’s focus on the so-called ‘selfish gene’ are
among the most widely misunderstood ideas of modern times. At
one end of the spectrum, creationist find the idea that we
evolved from apes – or, worse still, that we can trace our
lineage right back to single cell prokaryotes which emerged out
of an inauspicious chemical soup of amino acids – insulting and
believe that evolution is an elaborate excuse for a-morality. At
the other end of the spectrum, the uglier manifestations of
social Darwinism have completely misinterpreted the metaphor
‘survival of the fittest’ to justify their self-serving racist,
imperialist and classist ideas. But neither Darwin nor
geneticists like Dawkins advocate the idea that cutthroat,
ruthless competition is the only game in town, and co-operation
between individuals, communities