This killer that went on a rampage shooting

[uppityperson]

276. I was commenting on a line you wrote

"We are, however, slaves to most of our instincts ... eating, breathing, etc."

Breathing and eating are not "instincts" but biological imperatives to continue life. You can not continue to live if you stop breathing or eating, or not for long. Sex is not the same as a being can live their entire life without having sex.

About my term "biological imperative" : As a species, in order to continue the species some need to have sex, but as individuals it is not necessary. It is necessary to breath to continue to live as an individual, can get by without eating for a bit longer but not eating causes death also. Breathing is not an "instinct".

Per wiki (I know, not the best but it explains more clearly than I am). Eating, breathing are not instincts.

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

Any behavior is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. Sea turtles, newly hatched on a beach, will automatically move toward the ocean. A joey climbs into its mother's pouch upon being born. Honeybees communicate by dancing in the direction of a food source without formal instruction. Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behavior, internal escape functions, and the building of nests. All of these are examples of complex behaviors and are thus substantially different from simple reflex behaviors.

An instinct should be distinguished from a reflex, which is a simple response of an organism to a specific stimulus, such as the contraction of the pupil in response to bright light or the spasmodic movement of the lower leg when the knee is tapped. Instincts, in contrast, are inborn complex patterns of behavior that exist in most members of the species. However, the absence of volitional capacity must not be confused with an inability to modify fixed action patterns. For example, people may be able to modify a stimulated fixed action pattern by consciously recognizing the point of its activation and simply stop doing it, whereas animals without a sufficiently strong volitional capacity may not be able to disengage from their fixed action patterns, once activated.[1]