War and Human Nature

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at human behaviour in relation to war and the argument that war has continued through the ages because many human beings throughout the world, live in a state of spiritual emptiness. According to this paper, their lives lack meaning and purpose, and because of this emptiness which they long to fill, they accept the myth that war is something grand and noble.

Contents:
Introduction
Religion
Ethology/Sociobiology

From the Paper:

"Are human beings violent by nature? Many people think so and point out the violent crime, child abuse, sexual assault, and most of all war as evidence. However, all this phenomena is the result of aggression, so the question is really whether human beings have a genetic predisposition to be aggressive. Maybe aggression is survival mechanism from prehistoric times that once helped us but now works against us. In this essay we will explore three areas of the belief that man's fundamental nature is violent, in religion, ethology/sociobiology, and anthropology/social psychology. We will argue that explanations of nurture are far more compelling than explanations of nature and that human being are not naturally violent.
Religion. Christian orthodoxy (but not all Christian religions subscribe) teaches that man is born evil and violent because of the actions of Adam and Eve who are supposed to have been the first two people who ever lived. Because of their disobedience to God, or "original sin," all their descendants, that is, all humankind is condemned and guilty too. We are born with "sin on our souls" and cannot help being violent. This belief is quite widespread. Most researchers agree that humanity did not begin with two specific people, but bands or families who developed into communities and societies. Then, there is the problem in the story of the talking snake that recommends sin to the first woman. No such creature has ever existed since only human beings develop symbol systems of language and assign meanings to sounds (words). The story is an allegory and not an historical account; that is, Adam and Eve is fiction, a story that teaches important moral truths and uses a talking animal as one of its characters. What the story teaches is a topic for another essay. But debunking the story is not the point here. The point is that teaching people from early childhood that they are born with an evil nature is damaging to a person's self image and sense of identity. If we think of ourselves as peaceful, we will generally behave in a peaceful manner. If we think of ourselves as basically violent, we will act out that belief in violent ways."

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