Greed and other questions

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BENJA
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Greed and other questions

Post by BENJA »

Hello I have couple of questions

Where does greed come from ?
What humanianity view on spirtual experiences ?

Thanks,
Ben

wvanfleet
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Re: Greed and other questions

Post by wvanfleet »

Hi, Ben

I will try to answer your two questions.

[Where does greed come from ? ]

I see greed as being a tendency to have an unusually small amount of concern for the quality of others' lives compared to the quality of one's own life, especially when what one does may have opposite effects on one's own quality of life and that of others. We all have concern that we experience as much JCA (joy, contentment, appreciation) as possible and as little PSDED (pain, suffering, disability, early death) as possible (this being what is meant above by "quality of life"), but we also, to varying degrees, wish for that for others, and to varying extents try to do that which will promote that on the part of others (altruism). We are a social animal, created by the processes of evolution, in that being "social" has promoted the survival of the species. (More is accomplished when members of the species work together, in a coordinated way.) But regarding the degree of concern for others, that will depend to a great extent on the kind of child rearing that the individual has been exposed to. Authoritarian, punitive child rearing tends to produce chronic anger and oppositionalism, and an increased tendency to engage in struggling for dominance, all of which interferes with the development of altruism. Child rearing that emphasizes and rewards mutual concern for each other in the family, and for others outside the family, tends to promote altruism by rewarding it and teaching it, and providing the child with models of such behavior. My ideas about rational-ethical child rearing can be found at https://www.humanianity.com/homorationalis/hr108.html.

[What humanianity view on spirtual experiences ?]

Humanianity is not a specific set of beliefs about something. Humanianity is the growing movement away from authoritarian ethics (based on obedience to the most powerful) toward rational ethics involving the social contract by everyone for everyone, with the goal of doing that which is rationally consistent with the HUEP. Rationality is the use of the rules of logic and the rules of evidence, that have helped us to have much more accurate beliefs about reality and therefore much greater ability to do (sometimes amazing) things. Different individuals will have different opinions about spiritual experiences, including the meaning of the term "spiritual". And that topic ultimately gets into the mind-body problem, about which my ideas are presented at https://www.humanianity.com/homorationalis/hr300.html.

These are currently the best answers I have to your two questions, and these answers may raise additional questions, which I look forward to trying to answer.

Bill

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