Do humans need something to hate?

Started by Solomon Zorn, August 31, 2013, 06:58:57 PM

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Colanth

Quote from: "Solomon Zorn"But what about HATE. I mean the urge to kill kind of thing (not murder, but the thought behind it). The irrational thing.
Imagine a gene developing in Australopithecus that made some kid not hate leopards.

Now, after the leopard finished that easy snack ...

Hate may be the other side of fear, but it's probably about as much a part of us as the sucking reflex.  Can we "get rid" of it?  Probably not.  We can act rationally, but we can't change who and what we are.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

LikelyToBreak

Solomon Zorn wrote in part:
QuoteOvercoming hate would seem to be synonymous with overcoming fear. What if it's a justified fear rather than an irrational one? Does that justify the hate?
What justifies acting irrational?  Taking Colanth's analogy, suppose the kid that hated leopards, decided he had to go out and attack the leopards by himself with a big stick.  Same thing happens.  The kid becomes a snack for the leopard.  Now, if he acts rationally, he builds a barrier to keep the leopards from getting at him.  Tadaa!  Here we are.  =D>

If the hate causes an irrational action, then it is irrational regardless of how rational the fear is.  IMHO.

Solomon Zorn wrote in part:
QuoteI also hate "creepy crawlers", like centipedes and Pat Robertson. [-X
It is irrational to hate "creepy crawlers."  Whereas, hating Pat Robertson is the exception which proves the rule.  :axe

Colanth

Quote from: "LikelyToBreak"Solomon Zorn wrote in part:
QuoteI also hate "creepy crawlers", like centipedes and Pat Robertson. [-X
It is irrational to hate "creepy crawlers."  Whereas, hating Pat Robertson is the exception which proves the rule.  :axe
Hating "creepy crawlers" is genetic, in part.  Millipedes can cause allergic reactions (it's not really poison, but if you die the effect is the same).  Some spiders are poisonous.  Some snakes are poisonous.

Ancestors of ours who liked playing with creepy crawlers were probably collateral ancestors - they didn't live long enough to be direct ancestors.  (Natural selection's not all that complex.)
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

gomtuu77

Quote from: "Solomon Zorn"Be it other races, other religions, homosexuals, or atheists, are we programmed to hate what is different?
(For a lot of us, I guess Theists would be our target.)
Well, I think we are all sinners and therefore proned to doing and acting in evil ways, but I don't know if it would technically qualify as being programmed to hate.  Personally, I can't think of anyone I genuinely hate, unless we're talking about rapists, muderers, etc...  And even there, I should probably have a bit more compassion and focus more my desire to see justice in those cases than any genuine hatred I have for them.

But there is a lot of hatred.  You see it amongst all groups, including professing Christians.  I've been attacked multiple times here by various atheists, but I've learned to expect that.  I don't know how much of it is hate and how much of it is fear of having the strength of their own convictions threatened by the presence of someone who doesn't share them.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry? -

Solomon Zorn

I don't hate you Gomtuu. In fact I used to see the world much the way you do. I commend your willingness to brave this forum. There can be a little name calling, so you need a thick skin. But be sure to distinguish the attacks on your person from attacks on your reasoning.
If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
Poetry and Proverbs of the Uneducated Hick

http://www.solomonzorn.com

Colanth

Quote from: "gomtuu77"
Quote from: "Solomon Zorn"Be it other races, other religions, homosexuals, or atheists, are we programmed to hate what is different?
(For a lot of us, I guess Theists would be our target.)
Well, I think we are all sinners and therefore proned to doing and acting in evil ways
You say this to a group of people who you KNOW don't believe in sin or evil, yet you want us to talk to you bearing your beliefs in mind.  Don't be annoyed when we ignore your viewpoint the way you ignore ours.

(If you don't know that we don't believe in sin or evil, you should study atheism before you continue posting here, since that would mean that you know nothing about atheism - and it's foolish to post about something you know nothing about.)
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

SGOS

Quote from: "Mermaid"Sometimes I wonder if we as a species need some kind of conflict.
I'm sure that's true for some people if for nothing more than to add interest to an otherwise boring life.  Hate (I prefer the word hostility) is sometimes appropriate. But I think for some people, it's just a habit.  Most of the time, I think hate is a waste of good energy.

the_antithesis

Quote from: "Mermaid"Sometimes I wonder if we as a species need some kind of conflict.

Maybe not need but as a species that evolved to survive and doing so requiring an ability to deal with, and instigate conflict, it is hard wired into our DNA.

Fidel_Castronaut

See:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Other

It's been a central debating issue for international relations scholars for almost as long as IR has been a concept people thought about.

The wiki page above gives some preliminary philosophical and scientific texts to read up on :)

Quote from: "gomtuu77"But there is a lot of hatred.  You see it amongst all groups, including professing Christians.  I've been attacked multiple times here by various atheists, but I've learned to expect that.  I don't know how much of it is hate and how much of it is fear of having the strength of their own convictions threatened by the presence of someone who doesn't share them.

You up on your soapbox again?

Nobody is 'threatened' by the chrisitian faith here, at least not in an intellectual sense (and by that I'm excluding in a physical sense, which is really testament to how sad the reality is for some people).

Remember when I said you had a victim complex? What you posted is really the epitome of what I am getting at. Sheesh. Maybe you'd feel less like you were under 'attack' (you're not) if you stopped posting nonsense about sin and all that bollocks that you know (as Colanth iterates aboves) nobody on this forum believes or has a concept of.

But by all means, keep ignoring what people reply to you and persist in posting bollocks, and keep believing that it's our attitude which is the issue and not yours. If you take that as an 'attack' on you, or something filled with 'hate', that I'm cool with that. It's your delusion after all.
lol, marquee. HTML ROOLZ!

Solitary

People's ignorance doesn't make me angry or hateful, it's there animosity towards someone they don't agree with that makes them want to hurt that person because they are ignorant jerks. Who were the biggest jerks in school? The same ones here that want to hurt people to fill their inflated egos to prove to themselves they are smarter and better as if that proves them right.  :roll:   :popcorn:  Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

Colanth

Quote from: "gomtuu77"But there is a lot of hatred.  You see it amongst all groups, including professing Christians.  I've been attacked multiple times here by various atheists, but I've learned to expect that.  I don't know how much of it is hate and how much of it is fear of having the strength of their own convictions threatened by the presence of someone who doesn't share them.
Atheism isn't a conviction, it's lack of one particular conviction - we're not convinced that there's any god.  (Yes, I know that you've been brainwashed to believe that atheism is the positive conviction that there's no god, so there's no need for you to repeat your erroneous assertion.)  The fact that you do think there's one isn't going to convince us that your delusion is real.  Especially when we see the actual reason that Constantine started Christianity, the lies that have had to be entrenched into it to bolster it over the centuries, the documented history that shows its claims to be false, the sciences that do the same, etc., etc., etc.  You're talking about mountains of evidence on our side and less than a mustard seed's worth on your side, so if you live to be 100, and spend every single second of the rest of your life showing us "the error of our ways", one emotion you won't raise in any of us is fear.  Amusement, definitely.  Hatred (of your pushing your stupidity on us), probably.  But fear?  Are you really afraid that Zeus may be real?  That's how much we'll ever fear your lack of sharing "our convictions".

See, that's the point you Christians never fail to miss: To us, your god is exactly the same as Zeus is to Christians - nonsense that some not-too-well-educated people believed.  Jesus is to us like Osiris is to you.  If you want to know how we'd react to any particular situation regarding Christianity, think of how you'd react to that situation regarding Zoroastrianism.

Fear?  That we'll hurt ourselves laughing at you, maybe.

(I don't know how long you've been discussing theism/atheism with atheists.  I've been discussing it with theists for over 60 years, so I don't think you can come up with anything I didn't already respond to decades ago.)
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.