I am abrupt in my dismissal: I see no evidence nor plausible mechanism for group selection, and I don't even understand why some scientists continue to insist it had to have happened, other than a fondness for some kind of vague deus ex machina to reach down and smooth over the indirect and inefficient mechanisms that can produce altruism and properties of populations. And discomfort with the fact that evolution is weirder and less straightforward than our brains can imagine is not an argument for endorsing wishful thinking.
Jerry Coyne rips into the latest eruption of group selectionism. Go there for the details.
(Also on FtB)
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