Integrating A New Awareness Of Human Nature
I'd like to share an idea I've been working on. I am not satisfied with our current notions of the nature of the human species. As someone used to viewing problems from a "large" systems approach, it doesn't make sense to think we know how to resolve global climate change and other impending ecological crises without focusing on what it is about our species that allows us to ignore the damage we may be doing to our life support system.
Two years ago, a close family member had a stroke, from which they have recovered wonderfully. However, during a period of around 10 days, this loved one basically had their central processing unit shut down. They functioned largely at the basic level of an ape, concerned about being safe and pain-free, not being hungry, being physically impulsive and unable to communicate effectively. This experience helped me solidify my sense that humans, indeed, are more ape-like than we seem to care to recognize.
Anthropologists have been telling us about our similarities to other primate species, but it hasn't seemed to sink in very far into our awareness. In thinking about our inability to address global climate change, it became obvious to me that our primate nature plays a major role in our collective and individual challenges in life - from relationships with the opposite sex, to finding a pecking order at work or at home, to not being so obsessed with television, tools and toys, to getting carried away with nearly every concept or material good we find or create.
So, what is keeping us from understanding that we are absolutely wonderful, brilliant beings, but are substantilly primates with naturally upgraded processors and speech synthesizers? Actually, creationism would seem to stand in the way of accepting ourselves as primates, holding that we are divine beings rather than "animals." Perhaps that old paradigm plays a role in our difficulties with resolving to curtail global climate change and even war. If god demands perfection from us, we can not succeed, so we become frustrated and shamed, which only makes human activity more quirky and potentially destructive.
So, please let me know what you think of this idea. It is not a new one, but is there some relevance to our efforts at curbing potential ecological crises? Please email me at divineprimates@aol.com or visit my blog at www.divineprimate.zaadz.com/blog.
Miranda, thanks for your thoughtful comments. That is exactly the bridge that I am trying to cross - finding ways to merge the "divine" with the "primate" in a more seamless manner that allows these aspects to function as partners rather than as a duality.
Maslow's hirearchy of human needs addresses the core necessities for allowing humans to move towards self-actualization. My sense is that human culture's continuing struggle to thwart human nature (including fundamentalist religions) helps to keep us in a state of conflict and trauma that prevents us from feeling the safety and security that would allow us to act out of the higher parts of our nature. If innovation comes strictly from greed or fear, we may focus our ingenuity on weapons systems and scamming rather than advanced food distribution systems, energy efficient transportation and education.
While religion may tempt us into intellectualization and self-loathing, there are spiritual beliefs that engender the courage and faith of religion without the bravado and competitiveness. This is where I recommend "interspirituality," which is present in many mystical traditions around the world. There are core beliefs that include mystical experience without the sense of there being only one truth - only one right way to live. Interspirituality has been around for many hundreds of years. Such a spiritual approach allows us to dream and to see ourselves as more than we are - and yet avoids the tendency to punish ourselves or others when we believe that we have failed that dream and feel that we (or others) are unworthy, even subhuman.
The primate studies of scientists such as Frans De Waal show us that the animal nature of humans is not simply banal, brutal and survival oriented. In fact, instinct is also the seat of our love and courage, our empathy and partnership. Studies of the Bonobo apes are beginning to show a model of partnership, female empowerment and conflict avoidance. While Chimpanzees are more territorial and aggressive, the Bonobo may demonstrate that an alternative to aggression is also available to humans.
Returning to your final paragraph, the power to be "something else" and to do "something else" need not derive from our sense of having beliefs and gods that are superior to those of others. The "something else" we strive for may emerge as more compassionate and universal once we recognize that the similarities between nations and cultures and religions are far more important than the differences. Religions tend to accentuate our similarities with others in our particular community of belief - and our differences with other groups, nations, cultures and religions. They play into our primitive territoriality and tribal natures. Now that we recognize the interdependence of all of the human nations and cultures on earth, perhaps it is time that we dropped the divisive, competitive aspects of religion and moved forward with an interspirituality that acknowledges all faiths and traditions as equal partners in creation.
At the time the United States was being conceived and founded, there was an interspiritual practice that emerged in Europe and America. Deism was born of the frustration and horror at the religious wars that tore apart nations. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the founding fathers influenced by Deism and who believed that "revealed" religions were an impediment to human consensus and progress. Yet, they remained nominally "christian" and believed in God's creations. The details of religion simply became irrelevant to them.
Today, disenchantment with religion has led authors like Sam Harris and Dawkins to seek an end to religion in its entirety. I do not propose an end of "faith," but rather a beginning of faith, with an Interspirituality that respects people of all faiths and no faith at all, requiring acknowledgment that there is not "one" right way to live, and not "one" true faith. This is the source of the religious freedom that allowed America to survive and flourish. It is not a rejection of faith, but just a rejection of superiority and intolerance. In the same way, accepting our primate nature is not a rejection of faith or reason or science. It is simply an acknowledgment of human nature and an invitation to have more faith in our humanity.
Also with great respect and honor,
Earon
posted by Earon on 8/24/2007 11:22 pm