Human nature: will we ever be truly 'civilised'?
 

What is your opinion of 'human nature'

Are we as a species 'civilised'?

If not, will we ever be?

Is cruelty a defect or just a lack of empathy?

No

As long as religions exists we'll never be civilised or live in harmony.

We are a product of our environment.

I agree about religion. Organised religion in my opinion has shackled humanity for far too long.

I would just change one word in Marc's post by adding an "s" to religion.

Ah well I did mean all of them

I thought you did! :devil:

Some Nations
are not (by western views)
but they are set in their old way.
So Afghan Woman are at the level
of a Dog or below.



Now that nation has gone back in time
and said this is how we want it to be
now as the murdering USA /UK troops are going.


So for them it is a way of Life
Not a Defect.

I believe that our carnal nature has driven us to physical division and conflict whilst our egos have pushed us to spiritual division and conflict. I take stock in theories that involve all of us together needing to reawaken and elevate our one consciousness to the next level through mindfulness, well being, meditation and treating others well.

We need to supercede these notions that we are in any way separate from one another. By harming each other and harming the environment we are harming ourselves and sending out negative, destructive forces be they in the material realm or in the realm of consciousness. Anything that isn't love is simply a corruption of love.

We've dragged our bodies out of the swamps but clearly our minds are still playing a catch up game. We have an enormous wealth of culture and technology but these facets of existence are transitory and not enough on their own to validate our apparent greatness or stop us from being a mammal that is constantly waging a war with itself. It's not our nature. We need to reach towards something more ethereal and substantial than our current goals of administrating money and improving technology. We take ourselves far too seriously. Stu is nothing more than the lens that this piece of the consciousness is viewing the world through. I am but a fleeting expression of the universe. A damn handsome one, at that.



Be nice to one another I suppose, like. I'm Jesus now everyone follow me.

No,simply because of our over inflated egos of ourselves,we THINK we are better than any other living thing,we ride rough shod over everything that gets in our way,cruelty will never be ruled out as we think we have a right over anything and everything.

"We take ourselves far too seriously. "


Bang On Right Stu

As Bill and Ted said 'Be excellent to each other'

There are just as many arguments for civilisation (state welfare, government, charity, a sense of history and geography) as there are those for a lack of it (bigotry, war, ego).

"Best not to worry about it" - the Shaun Collins philosophy

no, some hunt for food and some hunt for sport, to kill an animal for no other reason than to inflate your ego, means some choose to be uncivilised.

We're ***** by nature and nothing will ever change that, there will always be bad, you just got to try and focus on the good.

But thats Tradition

You Are Most Wise Dezzy

Yes I will Dip You in my Cup of Stu


Hell of a Buzz

http://data3.whicdn.com/images/23250...a04d_large.jpg

We are not s**** there should be more philanthropy and altruism but as a whole I would say the UK is still 'civilised', has amazing spirit determination and drive.
The only thing that could change that is further strain on the family, housing and work lives of society. Which would force more and more people to live in conditions that makes civility unattainable.
That's when the giants will walk again, and that is a horrific thought.

Well the BBC article 'Are conspiracy theories ruining democracy?'... is very telling.
Don't question the powers that B ( BC)!!

That's what worries me the most. Sometimes you don't know what sort of species your dealing with until the veneer of civilisation is torn away from them. At the root of it in general we are still animals driven by the need to eat, sleep, copulate etc.

This is the stupidest claim ever, why do people keep saying it. Without religion there would definitely be more social disorder, it's extremism that needs to stop

People who say this are usually just jumping on a bandwagon and not making any attempt to try and think

Why would there be more social disorder? Are us atheists immoral vagabonds or something?

Stop playing the defensive atheist, I didn't say any of that I'm just saying that religion holds people down

You said without religion there would be more social disorder.


I would thus conclude from that you mean to ascertain atheists lack morality in comparison with theists.

Wrong, civility holds people up not down. religion is exploited by evil people.
We are all animals but humans are the only animals who take more than they need.

It's really not. You can dispute a church's role in shaping and structuring societies and civilisations versus the comparative harm they have wrought but any usefulness that the major world religions may have had in the past has long evaporated.

I'm hardly atheist by any stretch of the imagination but apart from a new spiritual order I would much rather a world ran by atheists. Organized religion in it's current guise is an antiquated blight on consciousness. Systems of societal control and nothing more.

Could you repeat that in words of 3 syllables or less? ;)

I can see why religion controlling the world can be problematic

I just mean it's important it exists in some form

Fair enough. I'm of the opinion that heavy dogmas, big books, special outfits and stained glass windows distract people from actual instinctual spirituality though.

Civilisations existed in harmony prior to religion, theres no reason to believe the emergence of religion made anything better..

If anyone needs a fine example of both sides of the coin regarding are we civilised I watched a video on youtube about a group of monkeys who lived indoors under captivity for 30 years being released into a much larger outdoor reservation.

Seeing the look of astonishment on their faces as the door slid open and sunlight hit them for the first time nearly brought a tear to my eye. How can a rational human being lack the compassion to keep an animal caged up like that is beyond me.

Spend some time on a site called http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/ and you will truly lose all faith in "civilized society".

This is a debate and I welcome your contribution just as much as any other persons even though I disagree.

Personally I wouldn't shed a tear if all organised religion followed the Dodo into extinction but fair play Salman.

Hallelujah!! :joker: agree 100%

no. there will always be religious extremists who believe there is no other way.

Let's be fair here though, our attitude towards chosen faiths isn't the only thing that stops us from achieving social parity.

Attitude towards other human beings

Attitudes towards other sentient beings

And

Attitudes to towards the planet

Are all major sticking points still.

All we as humans seem to be good at is inventing better ways to kill each other.

Religion when followed correctly instils morals, I'm not saying it's the only institution that does that I'm saying it's one of them. So it's just common sense to assume if it didn't exist then crime rates would increase, because not everyone has access to other institutions like education, or are influenced strongly enough by other institutions (like you aren't influenced by religion)

or something like that. Ugh I cba to think don't put me on the spot I know what I said http://31.media.tumblr.com/68ebd9193...7scno2_250.gif

Are you trying to instigate a bitch fight on my thread? :hugesmile:

..I believe that people are intrinsically good, but there are ‘bad’ people, of course... there is good and bad in most things but if there wasn’t so much good, far more than there is 'bad or evil’ then the world would be a much worse place than it is..so far as religion goes, I’m not personally religious through choice but I was brought up in a faith.. and I know many, many ‘good christian’ people...people whose faith makes them better people and gives them strength to cope with what they need to when life sucks a bit and also gives them the understanding of compassion for others and less self absorbed... so for some people, many people I would say that religion is good and positive...we all need something to ‘believe in’ , whether it be our families, friends, faith etc....there are of course extremists and those extremists are what causes ‘the bad/evil etc’ not the religion itself imo....



..a quote I love is from a Dali Lama.... “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”...