Christianity Essay -- Religion Behavior Papers

Christianity Humans love to think of themselves as fundamentally selfless, conscience-driven individuals, while, in Robert Wrights eyes, we be all self-promoters and social climbers (Wright 313). Wright explains all altruistic behaviors as a decompose 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 genius is intriguing in light of galore(postnominal) of the hallowed conceptions we tend to have regarding our own innate kindness towards apiece other. Viewed under the microscope of Christian morality, which demands that its followers perform good deeds without gulp attention to them, Wrights whimsy of altruism initially appears to present a upright conflict of interest for the faithful. Upon closer examination, however, several deep-seated similarities emerge in the midst of the two doctrines, leading one to conclude that Wrights selfish notion of al truism does less to disprove or disparage Christian ideals than it does to make Christianity look, genetically speaking, natural. Wright spends a considerable amount of time exploring human altruism--a universal attri exclusivelye that appears, prima facie, to have no genetic benefit. Wright uses the example of selfless king protea ants, sterile workers that hang from the ceilings of their colonys underground nest, their abdomens turgid with food. These living storage bins give-up the ghost solely to aid their kind in the event of a change spell, at which time they can provide nourishment for their kin (213). Initially, the lock of these sterile workers appears hopeless and ultimately futile, a kind of evolutionary self-destruction (157). However, if we stop to consider the relatives that this... ...st contribution to genetic proliferation, and are, in essence, involuntary tendencies designed specifically to increase our offspring, while Christian values of goodness and du ty are really actions performed in order to reach the promise of the close life, how can we praise (or blame) anything we do (340)? If we are all motivated by similar forces, with religions like Christianity re-affirming these inclinations, it would seem that we are merely going through the motions and are not really responsible for our actions. Not only that, but Christianity now appears not as a divine and beautiful plight of love, but a calculated complement to pre-existing forces, throwing the very notion of spirituality as incorruptible and free of the baseness of human nature asunder and introducing a whole new strain of doubt and doubt into the values we hold so dear.