All About Us

12-10-2011 - 2 minutes, 6 seconds -

This post might offend some. Please remember that there are better reasons to be offended, and also contemplate why you're offended in the first place.

The Human Condition

Humanity is interesting mostly because it's about us, as egotistical as it may seem. We (as Homo Sapiens) have been here for about 200,000 years and have documented the last five to seven thousand of it. Everyone you ever knew and possibly ever will know was born on Earth. Some people have owned large parts of the Earth, but never for very long. Great philosophers, murderers, peasants and royalty have had the same beginnings in a womb and all died after a century, more or less. The culmination of all humanity's efforts started and ended on the earth, with the exception certain space probes and assorted robotics, plus the radio bubble 50 lightyears wide and expanding consisting of terrestrial broadcasts. Most people want to be social, productive, happy and provided for but there's always exceptions to the rule. Humans spend a lot of time and effort on distractions, whether it's TV, Internet, hobbies, gossip or the box checked "other". Humans don't like to think unfamiliar, new thoughts. Humans like to judge, and to decide. They like to live their own life, as indefinable as that may be.

On Religion

Religion is a purely human concept, as far as we know. It consists of answers looking for questions. It's not known where the tendency for religion originates, either from our genetics or from social pressures. There have been countless religions with widely varying parameters mostly dictating what's allowed in one's life and most try to answer the question of where everything came from. Many people use religion as a crutch, others as a weapon. Humans are the only creature known to practice religion.

On Human Emotion

The interesting thing about emotion is that other creatures seem to exhibit emotions as well, which begs the question of if humans experience more emotions or if humans simply don't understand all of the emotions for every creature. Emotions probably evolved in creatures in order to condition them for better group or individual survival. For example, an offspring that has both a father and mother stands a better chance of survival than an offspring that does not have either or both due to love or affection being absent. Anger also prevents other creatures from performing detrimental acts, as fear of retribution due to anger overcomes the urge to better one's position at another's expense. More possibly to come...