As for the second part, I clearly haven’t had time to look thoroughly over all the links, but so far as I can tell none of them actually show that we interact for the sake of our well-being and health. What they show is that being alone can have negative effects on our well-being and health.

But these two concepts are actually quite different. Drinking red wine might reduce my risk of cancer, but even if that’s true that doesn’t mean I drink red wine BECAUSE it reduces my risk of cancer. Playing soccer may make someone more healthy, but to go from that to saying that they play soccer because it makes them unlhealthy is an unsupported leap.

Loneliness does not put me in a morbid mindset,

What do you mean loneliness doesn’t put you in a morbid mindset. Loneliness IS by definition a morbid mindset. If what you’re feeling doesn’t put you in a morbid mindset, then what you’re feeling is not in fact loneliness. What you are saying is the equivalent of saying “joy doesn’t put me in a happy mindset” or “depression doesn’t put me in a morbid mindset.” Joy is by definition a happy mindset, depression is by definition a morbid mindset. You can’t separate the feeling from the mindset. The same goes for loneliness, it’s by definition morbid.

The problem I think you are having is that you are conflating being alone with being lonely. I can be totally alone, without a person around for miles, but not feel lonely. I can be totally surrounded by tons of neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances and family members and feel completely lonely.

I totally believe that you can be ALONE and not be in a morbid mindset. This is probably what you’re actually experiencing. But no one can be lonely for a long period of time without ending up in a morbid place.

What evidence is there to suggest that friendships merely serve to distract us from death?

This would be too long an answer to put in a comment. But if you find my immortality drive series on this blog you can see more of my thoughts on this. Or better yet, read this book which lays out the argument that most of what we occupy ourselves with in life ultimately serves the purpose of distracting ourselves from inevitable death:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death

And as far as studies proving that we are driven to seek out social connections and avoid loneliness for the sake of our health and well-being, here are some links:

http://health.usnews.com/artic.....ealth.html

http://psychcentral.com/news/2...../2882.html

http://www.webmd.com/balance/n.....our-health

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/r.....ness.shtml

http://panicdisorder.about.com.....liness.htm

Loneliness does not put me in a morbid mindset, and honestly it seems like you just made that up because then you have an easy out of saying any activity not dealing with death is just a distraction from thoughts about death.

And I don’t think people who aren’t afraid of death all of a sudden stop engaging in any sorts of activities.

What evidence is there to suggest that friendships merely serve to distract us from death?

I really don’t see how every transaction in life comes down to sex, death or money. That seems to me like a gross oversimplifications of things.

For example if John is sad because his friend Bob left town, I’m really not sure what that has to do with sex, death, or money.

Relationships, friendships, memberships in organizations and causes and anything else that takes us out of the realm of solitude and involves us in something larger than ourselves serves the function of distracting us from death.

Loneliness eats away at you and your health. Some scientists believe exscessive loneliness over a long enough time period can actually lead to an earlier death. Loneliness puts us in a morbid mindset as well. And most importantly, loneliness makes it harder to distract ourselves from our inevitable deaths. Friendships distract us from death and morbid thoughts of our fleeting existence and eventual end.

For example if John is sad because his friend Bob left town, I’m really not sure what that has to do with sex, death, or money.

GENDER IDENTITY IS NOT BASED ON BIOLOGY. Do a meta-analysis of all the multiple studies conducted into the differences in behavior of males and females and you will find that the conclusions are negligible, showing a SLIGHTLY (like, .2 percent) higher activity level and aggression in the case of males ON AVERAGE.

Men are a not hard wired to be confident and emotionless. Gender differences persist because the majority of children are still being raised and taught in early development by almost entirely women. If you want young men to be able to express their emotions, and young women to accept that expression, young children need male childcare so they can see men behaving in a way that does not conform to gender stereotypes and thus learn that gender stereotypes are STUPID, just like the idea of biological derivation that perpetuates them.

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Thank you