Why did nature make greed and selfishness to be innate to humans?
caltam84 asked:
Of course, nature created life and evolution of animals and evolution in millions of years. Humans are primates.
Why did nature make greed, envy or selfishness innate to humans? I mean to be hardwired in the thinking brain.
If I am wrong with my question, then please correct me.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Greed and selfishness is innate to every animal, why would humans be different?
Every animal is wired for survival. In order to survive, the “me” has to come first. My needs. My offspring. My family. My safety. Selfishness is the best way to perpetuate a species, and that is why it is so widespread.
June 20th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Greed and selfishness, as said earlier are traits of every animal, not just humans. (Yes humans scientifically speaking are animals.) These are necessary qualities in the basic theme ’survival of the fittest’. To feel a desire to self-preserve and self-promote is to have the ability to survive in the roughest of situations. If you had it wired in you to help others than you would let others eat as you starved.
June 20th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
God created humans. Satan made them selfish & greedy. Evolution is a theory, Creation is a fact!
We all have an instinct to survive, but not all of us are “hardwired” into greediness & selfishness.
If you are interested in science, you should be open to researching the Bible’s & it’s scientific explanations of the world, mankind, creation, etc.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Survival, we are social, we have to compete sometimes. Double edge sword. It causes us to go forward, 2 steps forward, one step back. We had to learn to control these urges, to use them only when absolutely necessary. There is a time for everything under the sun. I mean, if a lion is coming to eat you, are you not greedy with your life, the cat is hungry and needs to eat.
June 24th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
You’re leaving out half the picture.
Not ALL humans are greedy, selfish, and envious.
Evolution also made generosity, self-sacrifice, cooperation, and morality innate. We wouldn’t have survived if we were ONLY the things on your list.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
A basic theory states that greed and selfishness are indeed a part of the human survival instinct. We work harder to ensure that we survive and procreate, and that our progeny survive and procreate. We do our best to ensure that our genes will survive. Not only that but there is also a mechanism to ensure that the largest amount of our genetic material would survive. For example, in a life or death situation, we’d save our children before we save our siblings, our siblings before our cousins, our cousins before our distand relatives, and so on and so on. It’s like concentric circles of survival imperatives, with yourself in the center.
On the other side of that, there is also what is called reciprocal altruism. This is what allows for empathy, charity, etc. It also explains why people go out of their way to save people who aren’t related to them. The idea behind this states that, because we’re social beings, we are compassionate and empathetic when we can be so that if we ever need it, it will be there in return. There is no immediate survival gain, but there could be in the long run.
For more info, try reading “Taking Darwin Seriously” by Michael Ruse, and “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins