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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (52557)	7/6/2002 11:53:24 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

I hear what you are saying, Karen... And believe me ... trust me ... I do get it. But here (if clumsily said) is my sticking point. I agree with you that there is an instinct within most of us to do the right thing. I agree that sometimes the "right thing" comes down to literally giving up our own lives to save those of others. It is not hypothetical, it happens often enough to people of all beliefs and persuasions. Surely there were avowed Atheists among those cops and firemen who charged up the stairs of the WTC even after the moment when it became a certainty that there would be no coming back. So this is honor, duty, nobility, courage, and a host of other higher-pupose attributes that distinguish humankind. This IS a kind of auto-pilot that hums within us. BUT WHERE DOES THIS INSTINCT COME FROM? I do not believe this instinct is observable in the lower animal kingdom. It is true that a duck or a fox will fight to protect their young, but I think they do not persist to the point of certain death. I believe the animal instinct is to run away and abandon their young in the face of a more powerful predator. Why do humans so commonly act otherwise? If you tell me it is because they have worked out this behavior through a process of reason and logic ... I am sorry, but I don't find that credible. What our disagreement comes down to ... is not WHAT people do .... but WHY they do it.