If people had a choice between immortality with no strife or greed, and mortality with life and death, trials and tribulations, which do you think people would choose? Immortality beyond the coils of human temptation or mortality with good and evil, despair and hope?

Which is the stronger of the two, which is the more lasting of the two.

The reason why humanity seems conflicted and in eternal paradox all the time, love/hate light/darkness fear/courage, is because I think humanity not only competes amongst itself but it also competes internally. Internally as in, a competition between emotions of one stripe or another, competition between the urge to kill and the urge to kill, between the soul of the individual and the purpose of the tribe/group.

The fundamental truth is that humanity is competitive. We are not cooperative. Nor do we have both at the same time. When the basic philosophy is distilled down into its primordial elements, what we have is the fundamental truth that even the dichotomy and paradox between teamwork and aggression is explained by the basic competitive drive in the human soul.

People work in teams not because competition and cooperation are side by side, people work in teams because it makes them more competitive. Those who work together win out over those who do not, that is competition at its heart.

So instead of stopping at the paradox and saying both exists at the same time, people should go farther Bookworm, look deeper within the mysteries.

The conclusion I came to, is that humanity evolves no longer through genetics, but through technology, the mind, and the control of the technology. As our minds create new technologies, those technologies will change human society and human behavioral patterns. I have heard stories about more enlightened alien species taking pity on the poor, war ridden, human race. I’m of another philosophy, I believe humanity can hold our own, simply because at the core of our soul is the desire to compete, to improve, and to win.

Because failure for humans, at least, has always resulted in death one way or another.

There are Christians that believe in Original Sin, that Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of evil and good, disobeying God, and being casted out of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a paradise, a utopia that did in fact exist, where a woman and a man could exist for eternity. Yet they had not the knowledge of good and evil, so they were nothing but animals, living in the present, no more and no less. My perspective is that Adam tried to obtain more than he was ready for, instead of staying in his place, humans tried to get out of it, even in the face of the wrath of a God. It gave humans the vices of hate, greed, sloth, envy, and all those other goodies, but it also gave humans the ability to transcend their previous limitations.

What I find interesting is that there are a lot of men who believe in the story of the Garden of Eden, who are not technological Luddites, nor people who despise women or the state of humanity like fake liberals do. Their behavior does not seem to merge logically with their religious beliefs. I’m not sure whether it is an advantage or not, but humans seem to be able to do the right thing, but for the wrong reasons. As well as doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Yes, so many want to claim that the ‘glass’ is either half empty or half full. Of course, its both.

When you said, “We *are* our animal makeup.”

I maintain we are far more than merely our ‘animal’ make-up.

That is why I said, “Positing that all we are is of an animal nature, deny’s a source for our ‘yearnings toward and impulses of a higher nature’.”

I don’t see enough people espousing that idea. I totally agree.

The miracle of humans is that we are a hodge-podge of allegedly conflicting characteristics.

We are loving and greedy and courageous and nasty and honorable and cowardly and brilliant and obtuse etc etc.

And what makes us special is all of those things. We *are* our animal makeup.

Continuing D_Brit’s metaphor. In a wrestliing match, you fight like hell against the other person. But at the end, 90% of the time it ends with a handshake and often a hug. Same thing on the football field. Compassion and empathy mixed with aggression and competition is a beautiful thing.

Just look to sports for confirmation. Take football. Each team is competitive, aggressive and tribal in relation to the other team. Each team’s internal relationships are just the opposite. The more cooperative, passively accepting of the coach’s direction and putting individual skills at the service of ‘teamwork’ a particular team is the more successful they will be.

Ignoring our animal, genetic make-up is a denial of reality.

Positing that all we are is of an animal nature, deny’s a source for our ‘yearnings toward and impulses of a higher nature’.