1. Answering the Call of Laudato Si’ : Science and the Common Good
Last time we laid out the problem. So, what’s the solution.
I don’t mean what are the technical answers because to a large extent, they are available.
I mean how do we get people to change to adopt those solutions.
To some degree, the answer is in Laudato Si

2. Answering the Call of Laudato Si’ : Science and the Common Good
Given the complexity of the ecological crisis and its multiple causes, we need to realize that the solutions will not emerge from just one way of interpreting and transforming reality.
Laudato Si ¶138
… science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to understanding reality, can enter
into an intense dialogue fruitful for both.
Laudato Si ¶62
Last time we laid out the problem. So, what’s the solution.
I don’t mean what are the technical answers because to a large extent, they are available.
I mean how do we get people to change to adopt those solutions.
I hope you will see the the insight gained by combing these two “ways of knowing” is much greater than the sum of its parts.
In some ways, the solution is a matter of respecting “the common good.”

3. We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.
Laudato Si ¶229
And the encyclical states that: “we have a shared responsibility for others and the world” = Common Good
O.K. Simple enough. Convince everyone in the world that they are responsible for everyone else in the world.
It seems preposterous but that is ACTUALLY what we’re asked to do as Chrisitians. In fact we’re asked to do it a lot!

4. SCIENCE and RELIGION:
CONTRADICTORY
“Though the details differ across the world, no known culture lacks some version of the time-consuming, wealth consuming, hostility provoking rituals, the anti-factual, counter-productive fantasies of religion.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
SCIENCE
RELIGION

5. SCIENCE and RELIGION: COMPLEMENTARY SCIENCE RELIGION
“Science tries to record and explain the factual character of the natural world, whereas religion struggles with spiritual and ethical questions about the meaning and proper conduct of our lives. The facts of nature simply cannot dictate correct moral behavior or spiritual meaning.”
― Stephen Jay Gould, The Hedgehog, the Fox & the Magister's Pox
SCIENCE
RELIGION

6. SCIENCE and RELIGION:
MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL
It follows that the fragmentation of knowledge
and the isolation of bits of information can actually
become a form of ignorance, unless they are
integrated into a broader vision of reality.
Laudato Si ¶138
SCIENCE
RELIGION

7. We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that
and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.
Laudato Si ¶229
we have a shared responsibility for others
And the encyclical states that: “we have a shared responsibility for others and the world” = Common Good
O.K. Simple enough. Convince everyone in the world that they are responsible for everyone else in the world.
It seems preposterous but that is ACTUALLY what we’re asked to do as Chrisitians. In fact we’re asked to do it a lot!

8. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Mathew 22:36-40
36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it:
40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Science can help us understand why this is difficult and maybe what can be done.

9. Jerusalem to Jericho
Passed by a priest and a Levite
Attended to by Sumaritan
We’re asked to do it in scripture a bunch of times
Jan Wijnants, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Oil on canvas, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

10. Solidarity "is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all." - Saint John Paul II - Sollicitudo rei socialis (1987)
In fact, this is also what we’ve been asked to do by this year’s college theme: Solidarity, we commit to the common good.

11. Transition slide:
We’re called to support the common good,
What does science say about this?
We know we often fall short (both as individuals and as a species)
Does science have any insight into why that is?
Can these insights be used with religious practices and belief to enhance human dedication to the common good?
Jan Wijnants, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Oil on canvas, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

12. 1975
1978
In this book and a subsequent book: On human nature
Wilson sets forth the idea that human behavior has a biological root and is therefor created by evolution and natural selection.
In fact, he even proposed a mechanism by which altruism (self sacrifice for the good of others/group) could be created through biological evolution.
It was one of those ideas that was HUGELY controversial but is now pretty widely accepted and has given way to the field that is now commonly called evolutionary psychology.
So we start looking for the genesis of altruism in human evolotion.
So, let’s but this process in context
Edward O. Wilson Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 25th Anniversary Edition. Harvard University Press.
Edward O. Wilson On Human Nature. Harvard University Press.

13. Humans migrate out of Africa: 65,000 ybp
First humans reach Americas: 12,000 ybp
Homo sapiens: 200,000 ybp
Development of agriculture: 10,000 ybp
Homo sapiens: 200,000 ybp
Spears used for hunting: 400,000 ybp
Use of fire for cooking: 1 million ybp
First hominids leave Africa: 2 million ybp
Use of crude stone tools: 2.5 million ybp
The things that made humans successful are the things that made them good:
~250,000 generations for prehumans/humans since the split with chimps/bonobos
Homo habilis: handy man
Group-living
Hunter-gatherers
Homo sapiens: wise man
Last common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos: 5 million ybp

14. change in DNA structure that creates a new trait
Natural selection
at work:
Mutation : Random
change in DNA structure
that creates a new trait
Assume:
Trait doubles the chances
that offspring will survive
and reproduce
Assume:
All individuals with the trait mate with individuals without the trait
So how did these traits evolve

18. In General: Traits that improve fitness become
Assume:
1 in 4 mates have a single
copy of the gene for the
trait =
Result: The majority of individuals (8/14) have the trait = or
How long does this take:
A gene causing a 5% fitness increase will become “fixed” in a population in 1000 generations
we’re about 400 generations since the implementation of agriculture and
8 generations away from industrialization
Thus, we’re adapted to be good hunter-gatherers
In General: Traits that improve fitness become
more frequent in a population.

19. How can we know what life was like for our hunter-gatherer ancestors?
archeological evidence
existing hunter-gatherer societies
our primate relatives

20. This one’s easy right. The great thing about this is it’s instinct
This one’s easy right? The great thing about this is it’s instinct. Any one of us would do this. We would not think about it for a minute.
But there’s actually a lot in this picture. It’s a picture of something happening so fast that no one has time to think. Everyone is acting on instinct. And look at what their instincts are telling them. Other’s nearby are shielding their faces. But even those far away are grimacing. I notice people grimace when I show them this picture. Let’s see if we can get a better handle on what’s going on here.
Christopher Horner/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

21. We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes Richard Dawkins
What we usually call “self preservation”
It says that genes (bits of DNA that create traits) are the unit the natural selection acts on.
All to often, this is interpreted as the end of the story. But even from a purely evolutionary standpoint, it’s not the whole story.
1976

22. This one is also pretty straightforward
This one is also pretty straightforward. Everyone who has a child knows this. But does it fit with the selfish gene.
Shaun Cunningham took one for his 8-year-old Landon on March 5. The father and son duo were watching the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Atlanta Braves in a spring training game in Orlando, Florida, when a bat flew into the stands. So Shaun did what any dad would do: He threw his arm up, and shielded his child’s face. 
Christopher Horner/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

23. r × b > c Inclusive fitness theory (W.D. Hamilton 1964)
Natural selection favors the gene(s) for altruism whenever:
r × b > c
C = cost: The cost of the altruistic act to the individual making the sacrifice
r = relatedeness: The probability that the individual receiving the benefit shares genes with the individual making the sacrifice
b = benefit: The benefit of the altruistic act to the relative of the individual making the sacrifice
AKA kin selection
Consistent with the selfish gene view: the gene for altruism survives because it MAY also be carried by the relative who benefits (increases chances of survival).
W.D. Hamilton The genetical evolution of social behaviour. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 7(1): 1-16.

24. These people are grimacing: they are not in pain but they sure look like it
To some extent: they’re empathizing
Shaun Cunningham took one for his 8-year-old Landon on March 5. The father and son duo were watching the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Atlanta Braves in a spring training game in Orlando, Florida, when a bat flew into the stands. So Shaun did what any dad would do: He threw his arm up, and shielded his child’s face. 
Christopher Horner/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

25. The neuroscience of empathy:
The pain matrix: areas
of the brain that become
active when you are in pain.
Most of these areas also
become active when you watch
someone else in pain.
ACC: anterior cingulate cortex
FMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging
David Eagleman The Brain: The Story of You.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

26. But what is the evolutionary advantage of empathy?
“From an evolutionary point of view, empathy is a useful skill: by gaining
a better grasp of what someone is feeling, it gives a better prediction
about what they’ll do next.” 1
Is the empathy response the first evolutionary step toward altruism?
It’s pretty important to be able to do this when living in a band
I think it might also be important for kin selection: you need to recognize that help is needed
But evolutionary traits are often coopted: evolve to give a certain advantage but then are used to create another.
1David Eagleman The Brain: The Story of You.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

27. It looks like this guy is helping the kid. He’s loving his neighbor
It looks like this guy is helping the kid. He’s loving his neighbor. But why? According to the selfish gene theory, he should only be doing this if it helps his genes become more frequent is subsequent generations.
Or are we “naturally” altruistic?
Given what has been said about natural selection, does it make
sense to sacrifice yourself for a person who is not related to you?
Have we evolved to cooperate?
Shaun Cunningham took one for his 8-year-old Landon on March 5. The father and son duo were watching the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Atlanta Braves in a spring training game in Orlando, Florida, when a bat flew into the stands. So Shaun did what any dad would do: He threw his arm up, and shielded his child’s face. 
Christopher Horner/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

28. Game Theory John Nash, Ph.D.
Russell Crowe as John Nash, A Beautiful Mind,
2001, Universal Pictures.

29. Game Theory
Introduce dilemma

30. Game Theory makes an individual (A) maximum benefit
Introduce dilemma
makes an individual (A)
vulnerable to exploitation
maximum benefit
to the group requiring
some individual sacrifice =
ALTRUISM

31. Game Theory average sentence = 1.5 months average sentence =

32. Game Theory The cost of altruism is minimized:
From a selfish-gene perspective can self sacrifice be advantageous to your genes? If so, altruism would be selected for.
How can you make cooperation pay off and maybe even inflict a penalty for being selfish.
Obviously repeated encounters are important, but that’s not enough
If others know you’re willing to sacrifice, then they have nothing to loose if they don’t cooperate. So how does someone cooperate without becoming the SUCKER?
If you know your partner is not going to defect: Your choice is between 1 month and no prison time, so now there is no benefit to you for cooperating
Here’s how
The cost of altruism is minimized:
IF you can rely on the loyalty of other group members

33. Game Theory
The other key is: Can you up the cost of betrayal?
Can you inflict a penalty for abusing the common good?
“The evolution of cooperation critically depends on the possibility of repeated encounters. It cannot evolve in a one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma…”
Steven Pinker The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Viking Press.

34. Reciprocal Altruism:

35. Food received was the best predictor of food given… …8.5 times more
Reciprocal Altruism:
Food received was the best predictor
of food given… …8.5 times more
important than relatedness.
In order for this to work YOU can not be a sucker: always giving and never receiving: Vampire bats have a much larger neocortex than other closely related bats. Baron, G., Stephan, H. and Frahm, H.D., Comparative neurobiology in Chiroptera. Birkhauser Verlag.
They are also more social, spend more time grooming.
Neocortex: “new”cortex, newest part of the brain: responsible for

36. “Human beings, this logic suggests, live in societies 150 strong
“Human beings, this logic suggests, live in societies 150 strong. Although many towns and cities are bigger than this, the number is in fact about right. It is roughly the number of people in a typical hunter-gatherer band, the number in a typical religious commune, the number in the average address book, the number in an army company, the maximum number employers prefer in an easily run factory. It is, in short, the number of people we each know well. “
Matt Ridley The Origins of virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. Viking Press. 15
150
Humans have a HOGE neocortex, bigger than all other primates: this allows us to keep track of a lot of other people.
So, that explains it. It the long run, it pays to help others because if provides help for us and we have become good at it:
Dunbar, R.I The social brain hypothesis. brain. 9(10):

37. Our minds have been built by selfish genes, but they have been built to be social, trustworthy and cooperative.
Matt Ridley The Origins of virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. Viking Press.

38. Group Selection Theory:
As E. O. Wilson explains, "In a group, selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals. But, groups of altruistic individuals beat groups of selfish individuals."
So… …that explains why we’re always nice to everyone else: by helping we were helped and if you didn’t act altruistically, you didn’t get help when you needed it and your genes went away… …maybe
Inner ape: p 132:
Pair bonding facilitated within group cooperation by reducing
Inter-male competition for mates!
BUT THINK ABOUT IT: THIS MEANS YOU ONLY HAVE TO BE NICE TO THE BAND
yep, there’s a dark side to group selection
Edward O. Wilson The Meaning of Human Existence. W.W. Norton and Co.

39. Reciprocal Altruism:
THE DARK SIDE

40. David Eagleman. 2015. The Brain: The Story of You.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

42. Figure 1.a, Illustration of Caucasian faces receiving painful and non-painful stimuli. b, Illustration of Chinese faces receiving painful and non-painful stimuli. c, Contrast values of the parameter estimates of signal intensity in the ACC and the frontal cortex that differentiated painful and non-painful stimuli in Caucasians. d, Contrast values of the parameter estimates of signal intensity in the ACC and the frontal cortex that differentiated painful and non-painful stimuli in Chinese.
The Journal of Neuroscience, 1 July 2009, 29(26):

43. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we demonstrate that, whereas painful stimulations applied to racial in-group faces induced increased activations in the ACC and inferior frontal/insula cortex in both Caucasians and Chinese, the empathic neural response in the ACC decreased significantly when participants viewed faces of other races.
That’s why it’s not easy to love your neighbor when your neighbor is everyone.
The Journal of Neuroscience, 1 July 2009, 29(26):

44. Human altruism is likely constrained by:
in group / out group bias

45. During the evolution of cooperation it may have become critical for individuals to compare their own efforts and pay-offs with those of others. Negative reactions may occur when expectations are violated.
Although there exists substantial cultural variation in its particulars, this ‘sense of fairness’ is probably a human universal that has been shown to prevail in a wide variety of circumstances.
However, we are not the only cooperative animals, hence inequity aversion may not be uniquely human. Many highly cooperative nonhuman species seem guided by a set of expectations about the outcome of cooperation and the division of resources.
Remember from prisoners dilema that it was critical to punish defectors in order to remove the incentive to defect when other were sure to cooperate.
For this reason, it appears that organisms using reciprical altruism keep careful track of what’s “fair”, remember, that’s why they evolved those big brains.
Brosnan, S.F. and De Waal, F.B., Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature, 425(6955), pp

46. Ultimatum Game Dictator Game
In Ultimatum, proposers typically offer 40–50 %,
and recipients routinely reject offers of less than 20 %.1
In Ultimatum, 65% offer an equal or better split. 2
Dictator Game
In Dictator, about 21% offer an equal or better split.2
1Güth, W., Schmittberger, R. and Schwarze, B., An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining. Journal of economic behavior & organization, 3(4), pp
2Forsythe, R., Horowitz, J.L., Savin, N.E. and Sefton, M., Fairness in simple bargaining experiments. Games and Economic behavior, 6(3), pp

47. Human altruism is likely constrained by:
in group / out group bias
fairness requirements

48. “The decline of violence may be
the most significant and least appreciated
development in the history of our species.”
“EXPANDING CIRCLE OF SYMPATHY”
So if this is the journey the human race must embark on, how have we been doing?
Well, there’s some evidence that we’ve made some progress
The expansion of our circle of sympathy
The expanding circle and the escalator of reason are powered by some of the same exogenous causes, particularly literacy, cosmopolitanism, and education

49. preexisting capacities.
Early human societies must have been optimal breeding grounds for “survival of the kindest” aimed at family and potential reciprocators. Once this sensibility had come into existence, its range expanded.
It is good to realize that in stressing kindness, religions are enforcing what is already part of our humanity. They are not turning human behavior around, only underlining
preexisting capacities.
So I think this helps illustrate the mutual benefit that results from the science/religion dialogue
Religion reminds us of which direction to choose: we have multiple paths and we can define our group in multiple ways
A central message of Christianity is that every person is in our tribe.
Religion can be the tool that lets us live in the modern world with our stone age brain.
Analogy to human health impacts of diet/activity differences between now and the pleistocene.
Frans de Waal Our inner ape: A leading primatologist explains why we are who we are. Riverhead Books.

50. Jerusalem to Jericho
Passed by a priest and a Levite
Attended to by Sumaritan
The Samaritans were people who lived in what had been the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaria, the name of that kingdom's capital, was located between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. The Samaritans were a racially mixed society with Jewish and pagan ancestry.
Because of their imperfect adherence to Judaism and their partly pagan ancestry, the Samaritans were despised by ordinary Jews.
Jesus indicated a new attitude must be taken toward the Samaritans when he passed through their towns instead of crossing the Jordan to avoid them (Jn 4:4-5), when he spoke with a Samaritan woman, contrary to Jewish custom (Jn 4:9), and when he said a time would come when worshiping in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerazim would not be important (Jn 4:21-24). When asked whom to regard as our neighbor, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan precisely because Samaritans were despised.
Jan Wijnants, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Oil on canvas, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

51. 'Love one another, recognizing in the heart of each of you the same God who is being born.' Those words, first spoken two thousand years ago, now begin to reveal themselves as the essential structural law of what we call progress and evolution.
-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
The Future of Man