Violence described by evolution

Even though violence is seen as a terrible thing it must have had some kind of benefit to our ancestors. Seen from the evolutionary point of view this would be the only explanation for why we have it today. Survival of the fittest means that only the best adapted species will survive. If your kind is not properly adapted to the environment you have a very little chance of making it to adulthood and if you don't grow old enough to reproduce, you wont pass on your genes and the population of the species will decline and maybe even completely disappear. The same theory goes for individuals. Even in a single species every individual is unique and slightly different. These differences can be either harmful or beneficial. If it's harmful the individual will probably die at an early ages and its genes wont get passed on to the next generation. But if the mutation is beneficial the genes will get passed on to the next generation, and it will keep getting passed on as long as it doesn't hurt the species. This also means that more and more individuals in this species will have this mutation and after a while it wont be seen as a mutation anymore.
 Being aggressive was probably a very important factor for early humans for a couple of reasons. The men had to go out and collect food for their families while the women were taking care of the children. When the men were out hunting it was important to be strong and aggressive when encountering a big animal so that they could defend themselves and also to be able to actually kill animals for food. The men also had to defend their territory from other humans and animals and it was the men's job to protect their families form all kinds of danger. A lot of violence is based on staying alive and protecting you family. Beating someone unconscious and then stealing their wallet can be connected with getting money for food, cloths, and housing. A gang shooting another gang can be related to defending their territory. And a guy shooting another guy who is hitting on his girlfriend can be explained by him feeling challenged by this new potential mate for his girl. For men a lot of violence is connected to jealousy. In evolution everything is about finding a mate and passing on your genes. So when a male sees someone flirting with his mate he immediately sees the new guy as a treat that he has to get rid of to ensure that is it his genes that get passed on. Jealousy is also the number one cause for spouse abuse, and males are more likely to injure or kill stepchildren which would be evolutionary explained by the male not wanting to take the risk of not having his own genes passed on.
                                                                            

Question responses

What is the theory of evolution?

Evolution is the theory that everything evolves and changes with time because of natural selection. Natural selection is based on survival of the fittest. That means that the animals and plants that are adapted the best to their environment will survive long enough to be able to reproduce and pass on their genes. While the ones that aren't that well adapted will die at a younger age and fewer will grow old enough to pass on their genes. As a result of this, a species is able to slowly evolve if needed. This theory also suggests that all animals and plans have the same ancestor and that's why we can see similarities in structure and function between different animals. Some animals are more closely related witch means that they have more things in common and have a more recently shared ancestor, like humans and monkeys. 

Who is Charles Darwin?

Charles Darwin was born in 1809 and in 1831 he went on a voyage to the Galapagos Islands, 500 miles west of South America. This is where he noticed that each of the islands had their own version of a kind of finch. They were all very similar but they all had some special feature that was a benefit to the specific island where they lived. This is when he thought that maybe they had all evolved from the same finch but adapted differently to the different environments. Darwin worked his theory of natural selection for 20 years and when he found out the Alfred Russel Wallace had similar ideas they came together and announced their ideas in 1858. 

What is evolutionary psychology? 

Evolutionary psychology is the theory that the functions of our brain and our behaviors is the result of evolution. As our ancestors leaned how to deal with problems and how to make things as easy as possible and taught these things to their children they evolved a new behavior and now we do it without thinking about it. An example of evolutionary psychology is language. Humans started using language to make communication easier and it made them able to express more complex thoughts and now all humans use it for everyday life.