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.