Perhaps the most noble, and at the same time, most empty sentence ever penned...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The grand words of the Declaration of Independence must have stung black men and women of all colors as it took nearly a century for blacks to be considered “equal” enough to abolish slavery and a half century more before women were considered “equal” enough to vote.
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12 comments:
Why should we treat black people as our equals?
Because they are. But I guess you are fishing for a moral basis for treating anyone with compassion, no? How about because scientific evidence says we are all one family, originating from a small group of blacks in Africa before dispersing and evolving different features/skin color, etc.
Why should we treat women as equals when the bible clearly demands they submit to men?
It seems like if you were going to abide by a utilitarian view, you could make a very compelling argument for slavery (at least if you were going to be consistent.) Same with "survival of the fittest". Might makes right, so if white people in general had conquered black people and were holding them as slaves, it was the perfectly natural course of things. It's how it works in nature. If one animal is stronger than the other, they reap the benefits (they eat the other, they take the other's food, they get the other's mate, etc etc.) So why should humans be any different? What makes us different?
And I believe that women should submit to men. Men are the leader of the household (and my personal opinion is that a man should be the leader of the country, too.) Does this mean that women shouldn't be able to hold jobs or leave the house or they should have to wear abaayas or stuff like that? No, I don't think so. But if a man is following the Bible as well as the woman is, then he will love her as Christ loved the church, and I don't think I would find any problem in submitting to a man who loved me that much.
What a shame that such a bright young woman feels a woman should not be president simply for being a woman. What a shame that you yourself feel you are to submit to your husband. If your husband truly loved you he would treat you as an equal partner.
But anyway, as I was asking, what makes humans different from animals in the way they're expected to treat each other?
This can even be tied into your issue of women - in the animal kingdom, generally the male animals just fight over the female and whoever wins mates with her and then moves on to another female. So why are we different? Why are we supposed to treat women as our equals? What is it about humans that seperates them?
I will answer that by asking you why you treat people kindly.
Is it simply because your religion tells you to or do you have compassion and empathy for people? Do you do it out of a sense of religious duty or do you treat people kindly because you genuinely care about them?
Do you think women are inherently lesser than men because they have a different number of chromosomes?
By the way, female animals are often the ones in charge of the males.
It breaks my heart how fundamentalist Christianity has poisoned your thinking.
I treat people kindly because I have an empathy for them and I love them. I also treat people kindly because Jesus told me to love them even when I don't feel like loving them.
I never said that a naturalist couldn't have compassion and empathy for people. I'm just pointing out that there is no basis for it in your beliefs (or antibeliefs or whatever it is you call them.) And you still haven't answered the question, why are humans different then animals and why are we expected to act differently?
“why are humans different then animals and why are we expected to act differently?”
I imagine we could list a million things that make humans different than animals. Not physically so much but mentally/socially. (Of course the way this question is phrased is a bit misleading since we ARE animals.)
We aren’t expected to “act” differently than other animals. We simply behave as humans have evolved to behave. Other animals do the same. You have a naturally evolved sense of justice/fairness and when that is coupled with training from parents, teachers, friends that reinforce that natural tendency you have a tendency to treat others in a more or less fair way.
"(Of course the way this question is phrased is a bit misleading since we ARE animals.)"
If we are animals, if we came from animals, why don't we act like animals? Why do we have consciousness and compassion and all that? Yes, you've stated that we do have all that, but I don't know why.
"We aren’t expected to “act” differently than other animals. We simply behave as humans have evolved to behave."
Again, same questions. Why have humans evolved differently from other animals? Why doesn't might make right? How come we protect the elderly and the young and the handicapped instead of leaving them for dead or eating them or something? Why are we expected to act civil toward one another instead of breaking into primal brawls to get our way?
For another thing, how come humans don't live by survival of the fittest?
Kelsie, All good questions. I think at this point it would be much more helpful to you for you to do the research yourself. I would suggest starting with Michael Shermer’s book, The Science of Good and Evil. With your thirst for answers, I would not be surprised if you became a leading expert on the evolution of behavior.
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