Tag Archive for Religion

Empathy and Compassion

April 20, 2010 Consciousness, Evolution, Politics, Values One comment

Based on what I’ve been reading lately, specifically The Empathetic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin, human beings have evolved into highly empathetic creatures. In fact, an individual’s well-being is highly dependent on the successful transmission of empathy from the mother, or other primary caregiver, to the child. The whole notion that people are driven solely by self-interest turns out not to be true.

I’m only a little way through the book but so far his over 600-page scholarly treatise seems to be providing an extremely well reasoned and well researched case to support what I call “species consciousness.” Rifkin calls it “biosphere consciousness.” The point is that we must identify ourselves with all of humanity on a planetary basis if we are to avoid global catastrophe.

From empathy to compassion is a short side trip. That’s where the Charter for Compassion [http://charterforcompassion.org/] comes in. This site/organization/movement bases its call for global togetherness on the Golden Rule, which it says is at the center of every great religion and spiritual practice.

Rifkin’s book and the Charter for Compassion are part of a growing global meme that we must become one humanity, that we must act as “HumansTogether.” To do this we must first scrape away the layers of cynicism and pessimism we have acquired through our lives and recognize that we and others are fundamentally not “just looking out for number one.”

We must examine the evidence and recognize that we are instead highly social creatures who at our core are much more about compassion and empathy than greed and selfishness. It may take a little digging, but the evidence is there. It just doesn’t get any press. But as Rifkin points out, the only reason our worst behaviors are featured on the news is that they are unusual. Most of the world is actually the opposite of the news, full of loving, concerned people who want to work together to help everyone.

Question Your Beliefs

April 14, 2010 Evolution, Politics, Values One comment

Where do your beliefs come from? Did you get your religion from your parents or did you reject your parents view completely? Did you make a decision to believe what you believe based on logic or did your values come by absorbing the views of your community or culture? Do more highly educated people have different beliefs than less highly educated people?

It’s hard to answer these questions, at least for someone who hasn’t read a lot of scholarly literature about the subject. The point is that beliefs come from a lot of places for a lot of reasons and most of them are not acquired based on a logical evaluation of all possible alternative beliefs.

Religion and culture are good examples. There are probably people who chose a religion after carefully evaluating and comparing all the tenants of the world’s spiritual practices. But more than likely the religion you have is the one your parents had, and you adopted it without really being aware that there were alternatives. And even without exploring the alternatives, there are many Christians who believe they have a handle on the ultimate governing principles of human reality. Those who were raised in other traditions believe just as fervently that they are the most righteous.

In this country, it kind of goes without saying that “America is the best country on earth.” Many, if not most of us, simply except this. We have an ingrained bias against anyone who is not American, even if we know intellectually that being born in any particular location doesn’t make a human being superior to another human being.

The fact is that beliefs drive behavior and if we are going to pull together as a species to solve the imminent planetary crises that we face, we have to take control of our beliefs. They can’t be random. We need to come together around a set of beliefs that recognizes that we are more alike at the core than we are different. Before we think of ourselves as Americans or any other nationality, we have to think “I am a human being on planet earth.”

This bigger picture vision locates us more appropriately for working together and appreciating our common humanity.

Rigid Ideology Is Oppressive

June 22, 2009 Politics One comment

In Iran we are witnessing the latest conflict between two constantly battling world views: the idea is that there is one correct set of beliefs and behaviors that human beings should follow and the idea that humans should be at least somewhat free to believe and behave as they desire. It’s a battle between the open and closed minded—the very religious vs. the less dogmatic.

It shows once again that religion is often a surrogate for earthly wealth and power—in this case a particularly virulent form of power.

In this country it’s the Republicans that I identify with the type of closed minded power that seeks to tell everybody else how to live. The fact that they want to loudly declare the righteousness of the protester’s cause in Iran is exactly the opposite of what they would do if we had mass demonstration in the streets against some future unpopular right wing war or a more disastrous economic collapse that represented “letting the market work.”

If you look at the battle in Iran as being between the proponents of change and the keepers of the faith, it’s the Republicans who are most similar to the hard-line Islamists.