Christianity
Humans love to think of themselves as fundamentally selfless, conscience-driven individuals, while, in Robert Wright's eyes, "we are all self-promoters and social climbers" (Wright 313). Wright explains all altruistic behaviors as a part of a "shameless ploy" by our genes to ensure the perpetuation of the invaluable genetic code (212). His assertion that human altruism is really fundamentally self-serving in nature is intriguing in light of many of the hallowed conceptions we tend to have regarding our own innate kindness towards each other. Viewed under the microscope of Christian morality, which demands that its followers perform good deeds without drawing attention to them, Wright's notion of altruism initially
…show more content…
If the liquid food that one ant carries saves the lives of four of its full siblings, two of whom are sisters (and therefore share 75% of the sacrificial ant's genes instead of the usual 50% in brothers), then the ant's behavior is ultimately genetically beneficial. The sterile, altruistic ant's genes will be passed on to the next generation via its relatives if they survive; it scores major points in the genetic game. Thus, especially in the case of organisms with a high degree of relatedness, "altruism of extraordinary magnitude is justified in the eyes of natural selection" since it will, in the end, ensure the survival of the altruist's genes in one form or another (164). This kind of kin altruism makes sense, then; we should be willing to sacrifice ourselves for our family, especially those members who are most closely related to us, since they share at least a fraction of our genes.
How, then, do we explain non-kin altruism? Even if we accept that sacrificing ourselves for our family is really fundamentally self-serving, why are we inclined towards kindness for those who are not genetically tied to us? Again, the answer lies in selfishness. Wright proposes that people extend favors to each other simply because they will someday be able to collect on them. Take the vampire bat, for example; after extracting blood from its prey, a bat may return to its cave to regurgitate some food for a friend who has had less luck that night. By sharing what
Acting with an unselfish and benevolent regard towards others isn’t always the easiest thing for one to do and most people have to put in a conscious effort to do it but some people believe that human beings are hard wired to behave altruistically as a primal method of survival. Humans could never
Humans are prenatally motivated to help those around us due to its evolutionary benefits that our species has a better chance of survival if all cooperate. Humans can also be nurtured to exhibit altruistic behavior through good parenting. Although most of the population agrees that altruism benefits society, scientific research has shown that even those who believe they are altruistic are not when they are put in situations which calls for selfless behavior. One phenomena that refutes the claim that most of the population strives for selfless behavior is known as the bystander effect. The bystander effect is when a person feels less responsible for doing selfless acts when they are in an environment of a group of
Altruism, despite the fact that a human conduct, needs extraordinary expressions to convey what needs be on all levels of unselfishness, for example, love and regard, since benevolence is regularly mistaken for any benevolent conduct made by living animals, and we should not utilize this general term to depict specific practices and behaviours.
5. What is your basis of ethics? My basics of ethics was taught by my grandma she instilled a lot of her values and morals in my life giving me the teachings that made her a bright woman. She made sure to start on me early by getting me involved in church and helping me understand my religion and god and what he expects from his people. I was told to become a leader and not a follower use gods power that he using in my life to restore and help those who may be broken in life. I always ask god if I’m unsure I understand in this world of many temptations we may fall but our god isn’t a judging god and will be there with open ears and arms to help you get it right if you want change. I am not perfect but I pay attention I know right from wrong and know I am help accountable for my actions and faults. And have god move in my
The word “Christian” in Colorado Christian University is more than just a belief shared amongst the Faculty and Student Body. It is the foundation on which all aspects of the educational experience are built. Beginning with a strong Statement of Faith, which aligns with core beliefs of the National Association of Evangelicals, the University proclaims its belief “in the Bible as being the only authoritative Word of God, that God exists in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as belief in the salvation and resurrection that is only found in Christ Jesus” (Statement of Faith at Colorado Christian University, n.d.).
According to Samir Okasha, a biologist from Stanford, altruism comes from our human biology. Altruism also exists all around us and in many species. Individuals can gain so much from the act of altruism. Okaska suggest that people do carry a gene to be altruism it exist within us all. Within human beings we have a biological need to survive. The reason altruism exist is so we all can have a chance of survival. Selfishness exist in order to increase the chance of an individual to survive. According to Scott, Selfishness does not do well at the between group level, because it harms the group’s chances of survival. This is why we have organized groups who tend have the authority to punishment mechanisms—like prisons or exile—to prevent freeloading or other selfish behavior” (Suttie). My view is that people
There is only one way to god and that is threw Jesus Christ. We have to go through Jesus because we are sinners and sin cannot be in God’s presence. Sin is falling short of Gods glory and since we all fall short we need Jesus to bring us back. To have Jesus we must accept him.
Altruism is an impossible and irrational moral standard to live by because it concentrates on the beneficiary of the moral values, not on the values themselves. Rand states that we are not altruistic because of our desire to live. Rand states that altruism would find the desire to live evil because living or surviving requires one to concern themselves with their own interests. Altruism denies an individual the right of self-care. “Altruism permits no concept of a self-respecting, self-supporting man – a man who supports his life by his own effort and neither sacrifices himself nor others” (Rand 7).
Natural selection was coined by Charles Darwin and it was his belief that only the fittest of all species would survive. Natural selection has produced altruism in the cases of insects such as the honey pot ants that work as larders where they store food from the workers for other ants. This is considered altruism as these ants are sacrificing their normal habitats to ensure that there is always enough food in storage. The case of the honey bee is similar as the honey pot where the the worker bee forgoes reproduction in order to take care of its siblings.
Darwin’s (1859) theory of natural selection hypothesised that individual’s with traits that increased their chance of survival would be more likely to reproduce. Such fitness enhancing genes would thus be passed to their offspring, increasing the trait’s frequency in a population. Altruism thus appears to be an oxymoron to Darwin’s (1859) theory. West et al. (2006) defined such social behaviour that reduces an actor’s fitness but increases the
Many have defined altruism in a similar context, a special form of helping behaviour that is “an act that is motivated by the desire to benefit another individual rather than oneself” (Hogg &Vaughan, 2008). An altruistic act does not necessarily have a negative or zero value to the actor (Margolis, 1982) but a true altruistic act is detrimental to the actor's fitness and enhances another individual’s fitness, in other words, a selfless act (Batson, 1991). Throughout the evolution of altruism, there have been many controversies about the existence of true altruism. Most theories have argued that it stems from ulterior motives, but does that prove
Helping people is a noble thing to do especially when it comes to the application of natural justice, where human beings help those who are suffering. There is always a hidden intention in every action that is obscured by the notion of philanthropy. Returned favors expectation might not be the ultimate intention as to why people may perform an act (Michael, 1978). However, it will be illogical to say that these intentions were
Kin selection relates to evolutionary advantage according to Hamilton's rule, C/B < b. The ratio of the cost, C (which is the expected loss in reproductive success for the doer) to the benefit for the recipient, B (the gain in reproductive success for the must be less than the probability that the recipient has the same allele, for the altruist gene to survive (5).
In our modern society, religion can either promote positive, optimistic actions or negative, destructive ones. From Christianity to Daoism, each different religion shapes the lives of its followers. Christianity and Hinduism can propel their followers to achieve moral greatness, while Islam and _____ can cause people to do heinous, damaging acts of violence and self-destruction.
Altruistic acts are often seen through the benevolent acts of family members express towards each other on a regular basis. Because of the significant amount of genes we share with our kin, the survival of a family is prioritized equally to the survival of the individual. Each member of the family will therefore behave altruistically towards each other, due to the evolutionary drive for survival. The reason that parents behave this altruistically towards their offspring is because “parents (adults) are in a maximally favorable position to dispense inexpensive aid to offspring (eggs) that maximally resembles the parents genetically” (Alexander, 462). Even through altruism is perhaps highest between family members, people also feel more empathetic towards others who possess similar traits, as a large number of genes are share. As altruism “involves a loss of individual fitness, [it] can evolve only by group selection” (Nunney, 228). Therefore, we can see that nature’s force of the survival of the group is a primary driving factor for the appearance of altruism.