There has been much research and writing about the Biology of Altruism in the last twenty years. The general conclusions are not that surprising: people are altruistic --that is they help others for delayed rather than immediate gain-- because it provides evolutionary benefits.

The altruistic woman who jumps in a lake to save her drowning child will have a greater chance of passing on her genes to her still living offspring. The altruistic genes will have a greater chance of living on than those of the more self-absorbed woman who wouldn't risk her own life to save her children.

It was a shocker for me to log on to this site and come up against the name of Satan. “Where’s Mark going to go with this one?” I asked. Whenever I run into this name I am given a moment’s pause—what does the writer or speaker mean? Is Satan a real and active presence for them, a demon loose in their world against which they battle, or as in the case of the Satanists Mark refers to, a being embraced as an iconoclastic hero? Is Satan metaphoric, standing for an inner voice or set of habits which attacks or binds us?