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POPSBiocultural Evolution in the 21st Century: The Evolutionary Role of Religion My outline introduces the concept of biocultural evolution, particularly with reference to the Twentieth Century and the prospects for the Twenty-First Century. I then explore the concept of complex distributed systems to characterize all highly creative processes in both culture and nature. Subsequently, I turn to the problem of complexity horizons and the challenge that these present for traditional moral reflections. Humans are then characterized as a Lamarckian wild card in epic of evolution. I close by discussing the evolutionary role of religion. See source for the full paper: http://metanexus.net/magazine/ArticleDetail/tabid/68/id/8779/Default.aspx
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POPSTips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically Dr. Martin Seligman, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, and author of Learned Optimism, has studied optimists and pessimists for 25 years. His research has found: Optimists * Less depression than pessimists * Better results than pessimists in most areas of life * Longer lifespan * Healthier than pessimists * Better than pessimists at work and in school * More friends and better social lives Pessimists * More depression than optimists * Inertia rather than activity in the face of setbacks * Feels bad subjectively–blue, down worried, anxious * Poor physical health * Self-fulfilling; pessimists don’t persist in the face of challenges and thus fail more frequently, even when success is attainable * Even when pessimists turn out to be right, they still feel worse than deluded optimists