Jellopanda
Member
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2016
- Messages
- 232
There is an amazing book by Randolph M. Nesse, a physician and evolutionary biologist that may be of interest to many people on this forum. It's called Why We Get Sick (which may be a bit unfortunate, as i understand, in britain, sick usually refers to nauseous. Why we get ill, may be better in that case). It explains from an evolutionary standpoint the reasons we get ill.
One of the many things the book explains is that some of the symptoms we experience from our illnesses are actually beneficial to us, tho they often don't feel that way. Many here struggle with pain for example and would probably think that having that rare neurological condition that makes you feel no pain at all would be amazing. The trouble with that is that you often don't notice that you've been severely hurt, like having a knife stuck in your back
or appendicitis and a host of other things. People with this condition rarely live longer than 20 years.
You can find his book on amazon, but i'll also post an interview Richard Dawkins did with him (has nothing to do with atheism btw) on youtube. It's in five parts, but i believe every part links to the next one.
One of the many things the book explains is that some of the symptoms we experience from our illnesses are actually beneficial to us, tho they often don't feel that way. Many here struggle with pain for example and would probably think that having that rare neurological condition that makes you feel no pain at all would be amazing. The trouble with that is that you often don't notice that you've been severely hurt, like having a knife stuck in your back
or appendicitis and a host of other things. People with this condition rarely live longer than 20 years.You can find his book on amazon, but i'll also post an interview Richard Dawkins did with him (has nothing to do with atheism btw) on youtube. It's in five parts, but i believe every part links to the next one.
