tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post6306034047939014373..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: Is deception no longer an adaptive human strategy?Kurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-16443568603857819742012-01-16T11:52:57.626-05:002012-01-16T11:52:57.626-05:00The above was unintentionally anonymous. For any ...The above was unintentionally anonymous. For any of like mind you can find me at www.1stVillager.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-58092421517690662002012-01-16T11:49:28.037-05:002012-01-16T11:49:28.037-05:00Continued ...
I am hopeful that mankind will come ...Continued ...<br />I am hopeful that mankind will come to its collective senses, taking a higher road that leads somewhere other than death and destruction. There seem to be two potential paths leading to salvation. One, universal enlightened self-interest through education, logic and scientific inquiry leading to enlightened choices. The other, embrace Jesus Christ's call to morality, rejecting petty self-interest in favor of the Golden Rule. Ironically, the destination of both paths is enlightened self-interest where people love others AS THEMSELVES. Many believe there is a fork in the road forcing us to choose a mutually exclusive secular or spiritual option. There is no such fork. Truth is truth, whether revealed through either the rigor of scientific or spiritual inquiry. Both paths require rigor. If forced to bet on one path over the other, I bet that the spiritual path has been historically more successful in changing human behavior than the path of universal scientific inquiry. But for me, no such choice is required. In the face of man's power to annihilate himself and evidence that he is well down that path, we must take up Don Quixote's challenge to "dream the impossible dream". But I can't get my head around that dream unless equipped with more than a lance. Mankind must do the right thing not only because it is logically in his selfish interest, but also because it is right and moral. He will get there when armed with truth discovered both through scientific and spiritual inquiry. Thinking such a quest is possible while equipped with only half the tool-chest is worse than quixotic. It is foolish.<br />Full disclosure, I am a Christian and a Mormon with the spirit of Don Quixote.Anonymoushttp://www.1stvillager.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-84978730723794636552012-01-16T11:48:06.001-05:002012-01-16T11:48:06.001-05:00One level below the practical implications of this...One level below the practical implications of this debate is a disturbing conflict for Christians. Said Christ, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." When challenged, "who is my neighbor?", he declared my neighbor is all humanity.<br />Yet, common sense and experience teach that at the survival level, "Honesty is praised and starves." My experience building an intentional community based on a combination of the golden rule and a self-sufficiency work ethic teaches me that with few exceptions, the world functions on the level of base self-interest. People crying out for a return to Christian principles regularly engage in deception that is harmful to others simply because it works. In its most cynical form, the preachers of many organized religions are exposed as the greatest hypocrites, calling for mutual love while plundering the gullible under the cover of religious piety. So, even the advocates of "pure religion" are among the least trusted. <br />Your call for mankind to unite under the banner of enlightened self-interest assumes a confidence in universal enlightenment that is more quixotic than Christ's call to love all mankind equally. In the disinformation age, truth ubiquitously couched in half-truths, smothers any possibility of getting to ultimate truth. As noted, the modern religion called science is equally compromised by special interests. It has come to the point where one must do "primary research" in order to trust the conclusions. Secondary or second-hand science is no longer trusted.<br />"And, since humans coordinate their activities primarily through language, it stands to reason that if that language is now used most effectively to create a false or misleading definition of the actual situation, then the human community will not be able to act appropriately to ensure its continued survival in the face of multiple threats … "<br />Infer from this that language is the problem. But the problem goes much deeper than language. Language is but a tool of deception, perhaps, the singular tool in a devil's tool chest that distinguishes humans from lower animals. But your final sentence clarifies, "The ability to deceive then has become so counterproductive that it threatens humans with extinction." This nugget approaches the truth. Language is not the root of the problem. The problem is fundamental morality. To clarify, the root is not the ABILITY to deceive, but deception itself, the common assumption that "Honesty starves" and survival is deception dependent. That takes us back to Christ's call to love ALL others as yourself, not pretense to love others as yourself.<br />The fog of the disinformation war is penetrated by appealing directly to an ultimate source of truth. In science, primary research, done by a competent, meticulous scientist can yield truth to that scientist. Once public, having left the scientist's hands and forced through the sieve of special interests, it becomes suspect. The same can be said of religion. Some still cling to an older notion that the ultimate source of truth is God. As with the newer religion of science, personal revelation (the spiritual equivalent of primary research) is the only sure way to knowledge of the truth.Anonymoushttp://www.1stvillager.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-74328947850058891232012-01-15T18:12:28.667-05:002012-01-15T18:12:28.667-05:00I found this article - I thought you might be inte...I found this article - I thought you might be interested:<br />http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/98/peak-nature.html<br /><br />Peak Nature<br />Capitalism has no soul. <br />Capitalism did away with feudal and pre-feudal myths such as the divine hierarchy between classes of people. In so doing, however, it substituted one heck of a giant myth of its own: Nature. Nature is precisely the lump that pre-exists the capitalist labor process.<br /><br />It goes on from there. Very Worth Reading.Henry Warwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16051313050545406852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-48822904818745458212012-01-15T15:53:49.636-05:002012-01-15T15:53:49.636-05:00Very good article containing key insights IMHO. Th...Very good article containing key insights IMHO. Thanks Kurt Cobb.Joris van Dorpnoreply@blogger.com