Our (nearly) cavemen-optimized brains fear our children will starve or be eaten if we don’t help them. Sexual jealousy is probably genetically encoded meaning lots of men want their mates to be exclusive to them. The following is pure speculation with absolutely no evidence behind it: but I wonder if a problem with open relationships involving couples planning on having kids is that the man might (for genetic reasons) care less for a child even if he knows with certainty that the child is theirs. A gene that caused a man to care more for children whose mothers were thought to be sexually exclusive with the man might increase reproductive fitness.
but I wonder if a problem with open relationships involving couples planning on having kids is that the man might (for genetic reasons) care less for a child even if he knows with certainty that the child is theirs.
Yes, until recently it was impossible to know with certainty that the child was his.
And even today feminist organizations are doing their best to keep it that way. For example, they managed to criminalize paternity testing in France.
I’m still unsure why I’m vehemently being downvoted for taking up this position. Perhaps it’s because people confuse it for men’s rights extremist thoughts? Why is the possibility being completely disregarded here that it’s only memes and a small set of genetic predispositions (such as reward from helping others via empathy and strong empathy for small humans) that jumpstart decent behavior? I think I’ve read somewhere that kittens learn how to groom by watching other cats. If other mammals can’t fully encode basic needs such as hygiene genetically, how can complex human behaviors? An important implication from this would be that culture carries much more value than we would otherwise attribute to it.
Our (nearly) cavemen-optimized brains fear our children will starve or be eaten if we don’t help them.
There is a strong predetermined empathy for cute things with big eyes, yes, but is there predetermined high level thinking about sex and offspring? I rather doubt that while OP appears to assume this as a given fact.
Our (nearly) cavemen-optimized brains fear our children will starve or be eaten if we don’t help them. Sexual jealousy is probably genetically encoded meaning lots of men want their mates to be exclusive to them. The following is pure speculation with absolutely no evidence behind it: but I wonder if a problem with open relationships involving couples planning on having kids is that the man might (for genetic reasons) care less for a child even if he knows with certainty that the child is theirs. A gene that caused a man to care more for children whose mothers were thought to be sexually exclusive with the man might increase reproductive fitness.
Yes, until recently it was impossible to know with certainty that the child was his.
And even today feminist organizations are doing their best to keep it that way. For example, they managed to criminalize paternity testing in France.
By that standard, sex is also criminalized in many countries—after all, it’s only legal if the participants consent.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the French law, but your interpretation of facts seems a little… creative.
They criminalized it for the main purpose that one would need to use it for.
I’m still unsure why I’m vehemently being downvoted for taking up this position. Perhaps it’s because people confuse it for men’s rights extremist thoughts? Why is the possibility being completely disregarded here that it’s only memes and a small set of genetic predispositions (such as reward from helping others via empathy and strong empathy for small humans) that jumpstart decent behavior? I think I’ve read somewhere that kittens learn how to groom by watching other cats. If other mammals can’t fully encode basic needs such as hygiene genetically, how can complex human behaviors? An important implication from this would be that culture carries much more value than we would otherwise attribute to it.
There is a strong predetermined empathy for cute things with big eyes, yes, but is there predetermined high level thinking about sex and offspring? I rather doubt that while OP appears to assume this as a given fact.