Saturday, June 05, 2010

Human Sexuality and the Evolution Debate

Why is it that other animals don't get sexually transmitted diseases from promiscuous behavior?  What possible explanation from survival theory would have man as the only species that faces the partner during sex?  What would the purpose of the Hyman be?

5 comments:

Bernardo said...

A quick Google search about your first question brings up...

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/09-how-often-do-animals-get-stds

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_animals_get_sexually_transmitted_diseases

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8761160

Regarding the second question: Why do you need an explanation from "survival theory"? Isn't it just common sense? But I guess I could try it: Becoming upright had survival advantages (hands are free, you can see farther, etc) and as the body evolved to be upright more comfortably, these same changes probably allowed for the facing-each-other position in intercourse to also be more comfortable. And in case you didn't know, this is not the only position available to people. It's probably the "default" because we like looking into other people's faces when we interact: We get pleasure from their pleasure, reassurance from their approval, reward from their comfort, and you get more of this if you can see the other person's face. Other animals are not so emotionally empathetic.

As for the hymen: Evolutionarily speaking, things don't have a "purpose". (Watch out for that teleology! It creeps up everywhere). Things are either advantageous, or detrimental, or neutral, when it comes to the competition for survival. And sometimes something that is very advantageous in that competition brings with it a side-effect that is a little detrimental, but overall it sticks because the benefit outweighs the detriment. So even if the hymen has no real advantage, maybe it is the side-effect of something that has a real advantage (such as some kind of tissue that protects people's genitals (or mammals' genitals, if other mammals have hymens) from parasites).

Randy Kirk said...

All of the above is so "just so." Man became upright because it was better for survival. Why? The jugular, stomach, back of the neck and groin are all more exposed. If it so advantageous, why only man? Wouldn't there have been disadvantages in terms of eye location? If it is so advantageous, why do bears only stand up in certain fighting or foraging situations, but still run on all fours.

The fact that you can come up with a possible explanation does not make it so, or even more elegant or able to be proven by science.

The truth is that these three attributes of human sexuality are unique to humans and are totally in line with Biblical and social norms that favor monogamy. Monogamy is not a very good species survival modality. The hymen and face-to-face intercourse are also impediments to procreation, not helps.

Why in the world would humans come to the place of wanting to look at one another while having sex? No other mammal has such an inclination.

Touche for now on STD's.

Randy Kirk said...

Woke up this morning and during my prayer time, the Holy Spirit revealed that I should remover my touche. Or, there was a cause and effect chain of events that resulted in certain neuron firings that showed me the following: The other animals that have STD's do not appear to be able to avoid the disease by restricting themselves to one partner. There is also nothing about the science in those articles that suggests that promiscuous behavior itself appears to create the breading ground for attracting new diseases. Finally, we're not talking about 1 diseases attacking humans, but 30 - 60 distinct diseases.

Anonymous said...

animals do have STDs monkey gave humans AIDs in south africa so your question is moot

Anonymous said...

And one other thing you do not have to face your partner during sex