May greed has an evolutionary advantage?

Religion and science have litter agreements, but they share this view: greed is not good for you. The definition of greed is that An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth. Greed tells you to think you have more than what you have got."Greed never allows you to think you have enough; it always destroys you by making you strive ever harder for more," Rabbi Benjamin Blech writes in "Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Ups and Down."

Not many people think greed is good. But might it have some evolutionary advantage?

Paul Zak, , might understand. He talked about greed as part of a lecture series titled "Science and the Seven Deadly Sins" at the New York Academy of Sciences.

"The seven deadly sins are still deadly because they separate us from other people," he said. "They are all about putting 'me' first, and that is maladaptive for social creatures like us."

Zak , a neuroeconomist and professor at Claremont Graduate University has done studies that have manipulated brain chemistry in human beings to show that oxytocin causes people to be moral.

Zak said that his research suggests that people who are greedy have brains that work differently. "Their character traits are similar to those of psychopaths. They simply do not care about others the way most people do, and the dysfunctional processing of oxytocin in their brains appears to be one reason for this."

It's hard to find a positive slant on greed if you mean the moral aspect of greed.