And I take issue with you saying humans are broken/flawed/sinners by default. We are not. We simply are. Death gives life meaning. Atrocities give accomplishments meaning. “Evil” gives “Good” depth. Shadow defines light.
Yeah, we can commit terrible atrocities. To ourselves, to the planet, to other species. There is no limit to our cruelty. I’m not trying to downplay or trivialize that. Bad acts should be punished, and they should not be emulated or perpetuated.
But we can only be as evil as we are good.
“The sweetest dreams of freedom are dreamt in the cruelest of prisons”.
We can agree to disagree then. But my extra thoughts are, if you take an evolutionary argument, we only do things that are beneficial for ourselves/species.
We’re an inherently selfish species from a biological perspective, people aren’t just fundamentally altruistic. If evolution shaped our morals to encourage us to be nice to each other to benefit the whole species, why is it still such a struggle for people to be selfless?
Being altruistic/good natured/selfless is something that has to be fostered and you have to be intentional about. If you have to be intentional about being good, then that means your default state is being bad. It’s easy to be selfish and only do things that you want and only care about yourself, because that’s our nature as a species. I don’t agree that we just “are” and that we just “exist”, it just sounds like someone that doesn’t want to face the truth that mankind is really not that great a species. It’s just copium to me
And I take issue with you saying humans are broken/flawed/sinners by default. We are not. We simply are. Death gives life meaning. Atrocities give accomplishments meaning. “Evil” gives “Good” depth. Shadow defines light.
Yeah, we can commit terrible atrocities. To ourselves, to the planet, to other species. There is no limit to our cruelty. I’m not trying to downplay or trivialize that. Bad acts should be punished, and they should not be emulated or perpetuated.
But we can only be as evil as we are good.
“The sweetest dreams of freedom are dreamt in the cruelest of prisons”.
We can agree to disagree then. But my extra thoughts are, if you take an evolutionary argument, we only do things that are beneficial for ourselves/species.
We’re an inherently selfish species from a biological perspective, people aren’t just fundamentally altruistic. If evolution shaped our morals to encourage us to be nice to each other to benefit the whole species, why is it still such a struggle for people to be selfless?
Being altruistic/good natured/selfless is something that has to be fostered and you have to be intentional about. If you have to be intentional about being good, then that means your default state is being bad. It’s easy to be selfish and only do things that you want and only care about yourself, because that’s our nature as a species. I don’t agree that we just “are” and that we just “exist”, it just sounds like someone that doesn’t want to face the truth that mankind is really not that great a species. It’s just copium to me