Christianity Essay -- Religion Behavior Papers

Christianity Humans love to think of themselves as fundamentally selfless, conscience-driven individuals, while, in Robert Wright's eyes, "we are all self-promoters and social climbers" (Wright 313). Wright explains all altruistic behaviors as a part of a "shameless ploy" by our genes to ensure the perpetuation of the invaluable genetic code (212). His assertion that human altruism is really fundamentally self-serving in nature is intriguing in light of many of the hallowed conceptions we tend to have regarding our own innate kindness towards each other. Viewed under the microscope of Christian morality, which demands that its followers perform good deeds without drawing attention to them, Wright's notion of altruism initially appears to present a serious conflict of interest for the faithful. Upon closer examination, however, several deep-seated similarities emerge between the two doctrines, leading one to conclude that Wright's selfish notion of altruism does less to disprove or disparage C hristian ideals than it does to make Christianity look, genetically speaking, "natural." Wright spends a considerable amount of time exploring human altruism--a universal trait that appears, prima facie, to have no genetic benefit. Wright uses the example of "selfless" honeypot ants, sterile workers that hang from the ceilings of their colony's underground nest, their abdomens turgid with food. These "living storage bins" survive solely to aid their kind in the event of a dry spell, at which time they can provide nourishment for their kin (213). Initially, the plight of these sterile workers appears hopeless and ultimately futile, a kind of "evolutionary suicide" (157). However, if we stop to consider the relatives that this... ...st contribution to genetic proliferation," and are, in essence, involuntary tendencies designed specifically to increase our offspring, while Christian values of goodness and righteousness are really actions performed in order to reach the promise of the next life, how can we praise (or blame) anything we do (340)? If we are all motivated by similar forces, with religions like Christianity re-affirming these inclinations, it would seem that we are merely going through the motions and are not really responsible for our actions. Not only that, but Christianity now appears not as a divine and beautiful covenant of love, but a calculated complement to pre-existing forces, throwing the very notion of spirituality as incorruptible and free of the baseness of human nature asunder and introducing a whole new strain of doubt and suspicion into the values we hold so dear.