RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 9:28 am
(This post was last modified: May 29, 2015 at 9:32 am by Randy Carson.)
Quick post before I head to work...more later.
Can we discern any consensus of opinion from the posts thus far? Folks have offered many different reasons for "why" we are good including:
It makes me feel good
It makes me feel bad (when I do bad)
Convention
Evolution
Although the majority seem to hold to some combination of points 1, 2 & 3, I'm not convinced that any of these reasons adequately answer the question of "Why Be Good" - especially in light of the core element of evolution that the strong dominate the weak, etc. Clearly, even today, some people do NOT care about others...they do or take what they want with little to no regard for the consequences. Evolution has not eliminated this from these individuals or groups.
For example, the Vikings had no sense of remorse for invading the English coastal villages a thousand or so years ago. And what did the Romans ever do to the Visigoths to cause the latter to sack Rome? If the Goths were "evolved" (and they lived but a blink of an eye ago in the evolutionary timeline) and acting with the same sense of "good" and "bad" that folks here claim to have, why was plundering, pillaging and raping even on the to-do list for the Goths in the first place?
It seems to me that these are examples of Darwinism at work...and evidence that evolution's demand that only the strong survive is still in full effect.
Can we discern any consensus of opinion from the posts thus far? Folks have offered many different reasons for "why" we are good including:
It makes me feel good
It makes me feel bad (when I do bad)
Convention
Evolution
Although the majority seem to hold to some combination of points 1, 2 & 3, I'm not convinced that any of these reasons adequately answer the question of "Why Be Good" - especially in light of the core element of evolution that the strong dominate the weak, etc. Clearly, even today, some people do NOT care about others...they do or take what they want with little to no regard for the consequences. Evolution has not eliminated this from these individuals or groups.
For example, the Vikings had no sense of remorse for invading the English coastal villages a thousand or so years ago. And what did the Romans ever do to the Visigoths to cause the latter to sack Rome? If the Goths were "evolved" (and they lived but a blink of an eye ago in the evolutionary timeline) and acting with the same sense of "good" and "bad" that folks here claim to have, why was plundering, pillaging and raping even on the to-do list for the Goths in the first place?
It seems to me that these are examples of Darwinism at work...and evidence that evolution's demand that only the strong survive is still in full effect.
