What do we do when we’re all physically and mentally perfect? Congratulate ourselves on eradicating the need to help each other? Shouldn’t everyone fend for themselves? Is human society evolving or turning neanderthal?
It’s always best to start a philosophical piece with questions.
How perfect is the human race today? We still have a world of broken people: financially, mentally, physically, spiritually and socially. Yet you hear this idea from the Elite that we have evolved into something better. What are those people smoking?
These social engineering types talk of eradicating illness and defect from the human race. They want to see a perfected human genome. Like they can control the breeding habits of 7 billion (and counting) people. Their goal is to eliminate those who are the carriers and not just those who are disabled by the mutations? But to find those mutations and defects what a police state we would live in?
Richard Dawkins recent tweeted that the human fetuses who were known to be genetically inferior, like that of a mongoloid or with Down’s syndrome should be aborted. Is that the goal then why not stop women from having kids altogether after their eggs start going bad starting a age 30? If you can take away the human right to copulate and reproduce, why not do it to perfect humanity (paradox for sure). Why not just have test tube babies where pregnancy is illegal. Hell why not fix everyone so they can’t reproduce. It’s a Brave New World!
The idea that we can eradicate illness and disability through human engineering mightcreate other problems for mankind. First there would be less need to have empathy for others, if everyone were well, had great genetics and were resistant to all forms of disease. Without human empathy, what type of world would we have?
When you are around people who don’t know love, it is funny to see them talk about how there day was. Oh, I broke a nail. Oh, I had a ding on my car door. Those are their problems. Isn’t it nice that there are no real problems for those people. Don’t tell them how their sick, poor, dying and suffering fellow human beings are doing? You don’t want to get them in a fluster, do you.
Great engineering and design work require human empathy. Empathy is a human trait that make the world a better place; for we decide to make it better. That motivation alone is a great source of human improvement. Instead of planning how everyone else should live, maybe those societal engineers who go live off the streets with the homeless and learn empathetic ways. George Orwell did.
In some ways empathy is much greater than human love. Or maybe more precisely Empathy is a higher form of love.
Human love can be selfish. It can be a give and take. You do this for me and I’ll do that for you. Scratch my back, and I’ll return the favor. Even worse is familial love where things are selfish extended to out families while the rest of the world can go to hell. The concept that even the wicked do nice things for their families. The bit about eliminating people’s babies for whatever reason is usually justified by a selfish motivation like not having to support those babies by your taxes. No empathy there at all. Such a love is shallow and can breed contempt of fellow men suffering in the world.
Disability, illness and brokenness are reasons to develop a better society. Without these challenges many awesome improvements to mankind would never have happened. And when that improvement is assimilated into human society, it produces a better life for all – except when those who benefit have no empathy. Helping someone and not yourself is what gives life purpose.
The reason people need a spiritual life and not a religious one is that it empathy is the outcome: love thy enemies, means going out and helping those who despise you, not sheltering yourself away from them.
If you accept Dawkin’s idea of a genetically superior society, where taking care of a sickly or disabled person is a waste, then you may be godless too. The Nazis had this thinking as well. It is noteworthy that the men behind such schemes were executed. Yet isn’t it true that
most of the past civilizations destroyed their disabled. I read about a Roman bath house where thousands of babies bodies where plugging up the sewage track. It is believed that these were babies born to prostitutes, who most likely serviced men at the bath house. Those prostitutes were the sex slaves of the time who had no means of supporting children.
When we accept those who are impoverished, down and out, or mentally sick and use their challenges to design something to help them overcome, we are growing spiritually. The evolution of mankind is spiritual and not physical. Some of the wealthiest people are those who have the worst of lives. Happiness comes from serving others. Personally helping another individual requires a heart, and many people are too frightened to love at that intimate level.
Will our society evolve and make it our business to take care of others, learning how to improve their condition in life, or will be de-evolve and put our genius at ending life, aborting fetuses, and euthanizing our sick and elderly. Infanticide for whatever reason stands as a testament against mankind. Even if you use the by-products to make adults healthy (stem cells). Someone once said that as a whole groups of people are much more amoral than individuals. When the society has grown calloused and inhuman to its youth, and committed infanticide, then sure the elderly, the disabled, and the sick are one step behind, until civilization falls.
What difference is today’s world from ancient pagan times as people give up their children for abortion, so as to improve their economic opportunity. In ancient times families would sacrifice their newborn children, so that they could secure a good harvest. Moloch was one of the false gods that Israel would worship during its periods of apostasy. I suppose that deity has arisen again under banner of the God of money.
We should be able to learn from the past and in this area the problem is that those who are religious are not necessary merciful or empathetic. They fail at being the representative of a God of Love. Then there are people who are always trying to live lives that improve the lives of others, but they have moments of completely stupid thinking, like trying to create a better world by eliminating things that aren’t perfect, especially other people.
Some people believe that by eliminating others who think differently from them will cause peace in this world. But people who only tolerate others like themselves are no more different than the selfish rich man who gives his money to his children and does nothing to improve the society in which they live. Killing off all the outsiders leaves you the worst type of person. Taking care of your own and not others all your life, leaves you with life devoid of value.
Reference Articles
Suggested Reading: Six Habits of Highly Empathetic People
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