Altruism

Hello World!

I’m using my daily thoughts and encounters to discover as many things as possible which bring together, rather than divide, our various belief systems and cultures.

This week I was engaged in an interesting and profound conversation concerning altruism. That is, the concept of completely selfless acts.

In our most cynical moments we may all have claimed that there is no such thing as a completely selfless, or altruistic, act. Indeed, one famous episode of Friends has a character trying to prove that there is, and ultimately failing, the premise being that every time a good deed is done, the protagonist of the deed feels good about doing it, perhaps from receiving gratitude, and thus has benefited from it too.

Technically, this is of course totally true; receiving sincere thanks from someone you have helped means you have put some joy into someone else’s life, and because the joy spreads, you smile yourself, and you feel the uplifting effects of various endorphins and ‘feel-good’ chemicals which your body produces naturally.

But what does it matter? I say that asking whether there is any such thing as an altruistic good deed is the wrong question. A good deed is, after all, a good deed whether the perpetrator benefits from it or not. It is all too easy to vilify a celebrity for publicly giving to charity by claiming that person will gain from extra sponsorship and exposure. But whether they do or not, the charity still would benefit from money and opportunities which someone did not have to give them.

As a Christian, am I doing the good things I do because I feel I should set an example, or because I would feel guilty if I didn’t, or because it’s what I want to do? I don’t think any of those reasons would be wrong answers. All I know is that I am more at peace with myself than I ever was, and so I do not stress about it, I just do what I feel I need to do and let my contemporaries come to their own conclusions.

So let’s all try this with each other. If you see or hear of someone doing a seemingly selfless act, and have doubts as to whether they have an ulterior motive, let them be. So what if they do? Rejoice that someone else benefited. Be happy that some joy is being spread. If we were all able to find peace with each other’s good deeds, we might find that even if altruism doesn’t exist, we could redefine it, and reap the benefits as a race.

Thanks for listening, and take care.

Our essence, our soul

Hello World!

I’m using my daily thoughts and encounters to discover as many things as possible which bring together, rather than divide, our various belief systems and cultures.

TV - both essential and yet pointless at the same time. I don’t really need it to survive, yet I always say I couldn’t live without it. The problem is that there are so many shows to choose from, one never knows what’s good and what isn’t. A difficult task when the schedule seems to be packed full of game shows, reality TV, and crime dramas.

However, in my efforts to watch more worthwhile programmes, I recently stumbled across Black Mirror. This was billed as an ‘intense satire’, and well-done parody being something I enjoy immensely, I decided to watch, and wasn’t let down. I shall try not to fill this post with too many spoilers, but the premise was that a young man had come to a tragic early end, leaving his wife alone and trying to come to terms. She discovers an app on Facebook which, using the deceased’s considerable social networking footprint, is able to ‘chat’ to her, taking on an approximation of his personality.

As the form of their communication develops into astonishing proportions, she realises that what she is talking to is not the man she loved at all, but just a reflection of the thoughts he left in the virtual ether.

What I enjoy about TV like this is the thoughts and questions it provokes. Our immediate instinct throughout a story such as that is to bemoan the amount of information we leave on the Internet. After all, although we know deep down that the apps which exist in this Black Mirror episode do not really exist, it all seems somehow realistic because of the amount of traffic we all know we put out there.

Is that a scary thought? Perhaps. But I was even more intrigued by the message at the end. It seems that, no matter how clever technology becomes, man-made intelligence cannot replace human personality. And that’s because no computer app can replicate the soul. If you don’t believe in a soul, then it’s whatever you call your essence, your sense of knowing you are you, and not just a mix of chemical reactions.

Such reactions would be the same all the time. Take a look at your favourite painting, for example – you love it, but does everyone? No. Each of us has an individual sense of aesthetics, a unique skill-set, a sense of perception which is a once-only occurrence. Each of us feels everything – pain, pleasure, guilt, elation, pride, loyalty, or anything under the sun – in a totally different way to our neighbour.

So, what do we call this unique sense of individuality, the nagging feeling that within our shells we are more than just moving parts, the inability to imagine what it’s like to simply not exist?

That’s a question I’ll leave you all to answer for yourselves.

Thanks for listening, and take care.

Human Nature

Hello, World.

I’m using my daily thoughts and encounters to discover as many things as possible which bring together, rather than divide, our various belief systems and cultures.

As you can probably tell from my thumbnail, I’m a fan of science-fiction. I’m always mindful of the second part of that particular phrase, ‘fiction’. For various reasons which I will share in future posts, I do not believe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. However, this does not stop shows like Doctor Who and Star Trek being entertaining, not least because the ultimate test of an imagination is to use completely invented settings and mechanics.

Also, even if a setting doesn’t exist, this does not mean that human nature is abandoned. I was having a conversation recently with a fellow Star Trek fan about the various alien races depicted in it, and how one can always predict how each will react according to the pigeon hole in which they belong.

For those of you who have never seen it, or only briefly watched, the main characteristics are as follows. There are the warlike yet honourable Klingons, the closed-off yet scientific Vulcans, the ruthless yet efficient Cardassians, the greedy yet commercially savvy Ferengi, and the mistrusting yet genius Romulans.

Each of these races, as you can see, has distinct positives and negatives to their character. This in itself is highly reflective of human nature, as we all have those as individuals, but take a closer look and we can see that the human race is capable of excelling in all the fields which those fictional aliens do. But what is there to stop us falling into their bad habits too? Someone who is a commercial success could indeed be greedy with it – you may all be thinking of some examples of that as you read this – so it’s clear that as well as signposts, these alien characteristics are also warnings.

There is, however, one alien race I have left out. Star Trek does no more than touch on the subject of religion throughout its incarnations, but the Bajorans are a big exception to this trend. Not only do they have a strong faith in their deities, who within the series are aliens living in the nearby cosmos who are capable of influencing events on a non-physical basis, but they see evidence of their work all the time.

Faith is the bond, the glue, which holds us as humans together. This does not have to be faith in the same God, or any god at all. But no matter how good or bad at martial arts, science, organisation or business one might be, faith in righteousness is something each and every one of us is capable of.

This intrinsic aspect of our human nature is what protects from falling into the traps that are greed, mistrust, war, and I’ll leave you to fill in the rest. We all have this in common. So let’s support each other, helping rather than judging, and see how close we can get to fulfilling our potential.

Thanks for listening, and take care.