Why Do Genes Care?

by Perry Hall

I'm currently reading The Moral Animal by Robert Wright on New Darwinism.

I just started, and there seem to be so many built-in assumptions. One is under "sexual selection," which strives to explain the attraction between males and females, mainly by males, to perpetuate their species. What is the assumption? It strives to answer "how", but assumes "why". Why would a species perpetuate itself beyond itself? Why do animals instinctually continue generationally what does not benefit them? Why do humans "choose" to "pass on their genes"? Theists understand this as part of "after their kind" (Genesis 1). For animals, it isn't "choice" but instinct. Why is there instinct? Strictly from an evolutionary perspective, why do "genes" care (genes can't "care") about the next generation?

The "why" is not materialistic because reproduction seeks what is beyond the material - self-awareness, hope, and a future.