Could good evolve?

I'm not sure whether you're religious. As Johnny Cash puts it

"I think I understand a little bit how you feel 'bout some things, it's none of my business how you feel 'bout some other things, and I don't give a damn how you  feel about some other things..."

I'm not sure whether I'm religious. But I do find evolutionary theory satisfying about a lot of things. A useful tool of such elegance that a deity might beget it.

What do I mean about goodness? I'm basically talking about altruism that goes beyond reactionary preservation of your blueprint. I think that's all DNA is... a blueprint or a recipe instructing each of your cells about how to behave in unison to create and maintain you. They have been described as selfish because they build you in such a way that you will survive. Your cells contain the blueprints and so the blueprints survive.

The blueprints know that you will die, eventually (they should know, they are the blueprint), and they will be destroyed when that happens. So the other thing that genes want, is for this creature they built to reproduce.

It isn't perfect, but the physics of reproduction means that for each blueprint, half will be copied and will escape from you to form a new creature. That half of a blueprint can live on after your death. In fact, when two halves of a blueprint from different creatures combine together to create a new creature, those two halves actually have many more similarities between them than differences. So, by getting your girl pregnant or being made pregnant by your man, the vast majority of your blueprint is copied.

Survival (through life and reproduction) is the only priority of your blueprint. Selfish as a blueprint.

So the question is, would the blueprint include parts to make you good and altruistic? Would those parts be useful, redundant, or an impediment to the priority?

We need to imagine life before goodness. The battle for survival. Everybody living on the brink of starvation and dehydration. Desperate for food, bodies echoing hollowly with hunger, heads banging with heat and thirst. The way lions feel. Are you there yet? OK... good.

Now you find an old half-rotten apple. Do you selfishly eat it all yourself or do you altruistically share it with your mate (interpret mate any way you like)? It's survival calculus. Do you believe that your mate's gratitude and the possibility of calling in a reciprocal favour at some future date is worth the certain loss of half your rotten apple? What does your blueprint tell you? What if the potential payback is sex and the chance to replicate your selfish genes? The helix from DNA, he say yes.

OK, now what if we're thinking of the other interprestation of mate? A friend that you can't ever reproduce with? Altruism can still improve your chances of reproduction. Now you're building reputation. We're a sociable species. What if word of your altruism spreads? You have saved someone's life. Perhaps they speak of your deeds in awed tones when they are next with the tribe before the next hunt. What do the other types of mate think of that? Perhaps your altruism is an impressive quality. The fact that it is someone whose life you saved, someone who is alive because of you, that is telling of your kindness, strengthens your reputation far more than any selfish boasting could.

Everybody wants to be your friend. Those who can want to reproduce with you and have similarly good and caring offspring.

So yes, in my view, it's quite likely that good can evolve.