Sunday, February 12, 2012

We All Need Warm Fuzzies


I'll allow that the video might be a little, well, argumentative in parts. But I buy the central truth of it: that, because of obvious evolutionary benefits, we (most of us) are indeed hard-wired to seek the company of others. Therefore, in an increasingly scary -- and, in many ways, isolating -- world, it's not hard to recognize the deeply-seated emotional attraction both of organized religion, and of believing that, no matter how it may seem, you are loved by a really powerful guy. Covers a lot of territory, fills a lot of chomosomal needs.

And, given this need's evident centrality to our humanity, who can say it's wrong? Put that way, not even me. I just wish the subset of people whose sense of self-worth so depends upon having that magical love that merely knowing there are other people who disagree is felt as an existential threat (getting through this sentence okay?) could somehow find a way to compartmentalize. Use it to float their boat, but not to sink mine. Keep it out of our schools; not make it the mainstay of our politics, our foreign policy, our understanding of the world (which, matter of fact, clearly is [1] really old and [2] demonstrably is getting warmer, due to the activities of evolution-formed mankind, for just a couple of examples.)

Wouldn't that be nice? In a reality-based, problem-solving sort of way?


No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments back, moderated. Preference given for those who stay on topic.

Popular posts