Monday, January 21, 2008

Survival Instincts

You will be surprised to know that most human behaviour and instincitve likes/dislikes (the one's common to almost all people) can be explained on the basis of

Survival and the propagation of one's genes

Well, at least the reasons linking certain behaviour or instincts to the above objective was valid at the time when we were but hunters in the jungle. Somehow after all these years, we haven't yet grown out of a few of them that have become ........."less necessary" shall we say? For example:

Fear of the dark and sudden loud noises:
Our most developed sense is that of sight (relatively). In the dark, a human being is helpless. If something attacks him (a snake or panther), he won't be able to defend himself. So fear of the dark was a nature's way of ensuring man didn't unnecessarily risk his life. Now a predators strike is usually accompanied by a sudden loud noise. So fear boosts man's reflexes/attention and prepares him for flight. Even when man becomes too frightened to move, he becomes harder to see (if camouflaged or in dim light) owing to the fact that moving objects catch the eye better than still ones - which is again a necessity because moving prey and predators are more important than still plants and rocks.

Men desiring beautiful women:
Beauty - especially skin texture, radiance, hair quality, proper weight (neither emaciated nor too much overweight) is a sign of health. A healthy body is necessary to ensure the viablity of offspring.

Women desiring men of power/ men who are caring and understanding:
When mankind lived in tribes, power (think of the tribal chief) brought better promise of safety and food. Today power holds the promise of luxury and social-respect. Men who are caring and understanding have more chances of sticking around when a chlid is born - vital to the future of the child.

Desire for peer approval:
Cavemen who didnt' blend in with the pack weren't welcome. For a pack to stay together solidarity is important. Now members of a pack were mostly an extended family and hence had a lot of common genes. Common genes means common characteristics. That's why instinct made them hostile to outsiders. And that's why today lots of people find it hard to trust other people who are of different ethnicity, religion, colour, language giving rise to communalism.

Parents giving more priority to thier children's needs then thier own, children not reciprocating:
The propagation of life and one's own genes demands that the newer generation be given more preference than the older.

Altruism as a natural calling:
Back in the days when man was part of a pack, the survival of the individual depended on the survival of the whole group. Here, Nobel Laureate John Nash's Game Theory applies: Everyone acting for the common benefit will produce results that are better for everyone than those when each acts for what is best for only his own interests. So if each person on the detection of an enemy (say a predator like a tiger) ran off and alerted the rest instead of running as far as he can from it,this would increase the chances of survival of everyone.

There are more. These are just the ones that come to my mind right now. I'm sure if you try you can think of many more. Please tell me if any occur to you. I hope i've helped you get an insight into the reasons for some of our basic desires, preferences and instincts.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Good and Evil

In my previous post the assertion of God's apparent apathy towards good (assuming he exists) makes one think that maybe God's notion of good and evil is different from ours. Or maybe he never did make a distinction between the two. Maybe there is no absoulute classification into good and evil. Maybe they are social constructs created by man.

A few good qualities are kindness, modesty, justice, honesty, truthfullnes. If you examine each of these, you'll find that all of them serve one purpose: the common good i.e. the benefit of all. For e.g. being unkind doesn't benefit you but being kind benefits the person you are kind to. So if the whole society practices kindness then everyone is benefited. Same for modesty.

Now for justice. The nature and origin of justice is beautifully explained in Plato's Republic:

"They say to do wrong is naturally good (profitable), to be wronged is bad (causing loss), but the suffering of injury so far exceeds in badness the good of inflicting it that when men have done wrong to each other and suffered it, and have had a taste of both, those who are unable to avoid the latter and practice the former decide that it is profitable to come to an agreement with each other neither to inflict injury nor to suffer it. As a result they begin to make laws and the law's command they call lawful and just. This, they say is the origin and essence of justice; it stands between the best and the worst, the best being to do wrong without paying the penalty and the worst to be wronged without the power of revenge. The just then is a mean beween two exremes; it is welcomed and honoured because of men's lack of the power to do wrong. The man who has that power, would not make a compact with anyone not to inflict injury or suffer it. For him that would be foolish."

That forms the basis of justice. All the rest of what constitutes justice is but an extension of this central concept. Same goes for honesty. Similiarly everybody lying serves nobody's purpose. Better uphold truthfullness as a virtue.

So anything beneficial to society was encouraged and anything detrimental to society was frowned upon. This is how classification into good and evil was carried out. And this is why you are exhorted to do good and dissuaded from doing evil.

Monday, January 7, 2008

And on the sixth day, Man created God

After all these years of being uncertain of what to think of god and what my feelings for Him are, i have finally arrived at the conclusion that God is nothing but a concept: a creation of man. The questions that led to my doubting His existence are the age-old inconsistencies viz.

"If god is almighty and wishes only good for mankind then why is there suffering in this world?"

So that we may not forget Him? God chose to give us free will? Because we can't appreciate the good without experiencing the bad? Yeah right !!! Couldn't they have thought of something that sounded less defensive?

"Why is it that dishonourable people are rich and powerful and honest people struggling to live?"

Materialism is not what is important, they say? No wonder Karl Marx wrote, "Religion is the opium of the masses". I say that if god exists then he should be relieved of his services for negligence of duty.

"If Earth has previously been a witness to divine manifestations before (as Avtaars or The Son of God) to rescue mankind, why isn't He coming now, when the world needs him the most?"

It's said He'll come when the time is right. I just hope God doesn't follow IST !!! Face it. Accounts of His coming before are just fake stories. No historical evidence whatsoever.

"Why does God have manlike appearance? And why should God be biased towards man, of all animals?"

Ummmm. Because only man had the intelligence to make him up? That and a little bit of ego on man's part.

Even before the earliest civilization existed, the concept of God started out as a manifestation of the fear of the unknown and unexplained. Natural events like the travelling of the Sun across the sky, eclipses, death, disease all were attributed to the divine. But Man had to allay his fears. So the powerful and punishing God turned into powerful and benevolent God.

This fear/high regard of God and consequently power attributed to His "messengers" was what was exploited by organized religious bodies like the Roman Catholic Church to wield power over men. Not to mention the horrible misuse of that power (Witch-killings and suppression of scientific inquiry - remember Galileo?).

Then came all the wars and communalism so prevalent in our times in which people kill each other in the name of God. I'd say that the biggest murderer of all-time is none other than God Himself.

Now this is not to say that the concept of God should be done away with. I think that the concept of God is a useful one. It helps during meditation to focus on something all-bliss and totally calm and serene. However, i also think that the concept of God is a relic of our caveman days.
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
- Richard Dawkins