I was thinking this week about humanity. We, as humans, are an interesting breed. On the one hand you see the most loving, humble and compassionate acts lived daily. On the other hand, you can find the most despicable, abusive, and harmful act carried out with a certain amount of disdain, that it sickens the soul. And that is just the social/psycho aspect of humanity. The human body is an amazing, awesome instrument, but when it breaks down or becomes addicted it is difficult to watch the results. Humanity is a paradox. From these premises, I started to think about what humans have thought or are thinking about ourselves.
In the past, it was thought that the first humans, the Golden Humans, were perfect. Their perfection was biological, sociological and psychological. It was not only the perfect human form, but the perfect human society, government and philosophy. But the perfection was lost with each seceding generation; the corruption broke down the society, the mind and the body. Perfection was lost and the result was a decaying human species becoming less and less with each passing generation. Even those who strive for perfection in one or more of the humanly characteristics could never fully recover what once was.
This is easy to see today. Genetic diseases are carried on and compounded with each new generation. Dysfunctional mental and social problems breeding even further dysfunctionality.
But then again: the fields of psychology, sociology, genetics are all new fields, even science as we understand it today is new in the grand scheme of human history. So maybe all of the ills which plague us today have always plagued us; it is just that no one mentioned it in the past in the scientific terms we look for today. Silence can tell us nothing. We do know that war, greed, corruption, love, compassion and sacrifice have always existed. But are the negatives on the increase and the positives on the decrease? Does the perfect human have yet to exist? In modern evolutionary terms humanity must always be striving forward. Modern science, psychology and sociology can now point to what may be, in some possible future, a perfect human living in a perfect society. Under the guidance of science, humanity can become greater and greater with each coming generation.
But then again: it seems things don't really change, only the accessories in which we dress ourselves.
3 comments:
There has never been a perfect human race. How long did it take Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit? God destroyed entire cities because of the wickedness of humans (I just read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to my son, try to explain that to a fie year old?)
The human species is not decaying any more today than it did years ago, it is just different. There are still many great people out there, and if search history to find a perfect human than we can only point to Jesus.
So one vote for the way the world is, is the way it has always been.
Perhaps... The story of Adam and Eve is interesting. They disobeyed God... but then their son(born in sin? a theological topic still debated to this day) comitted murder. And his son built a reputation (and a city) on murdering... So is each generation after Adam and Eve even further from the Garden (and God)? It gets to the point where even divine intervention doesn't stop the sinning (Noah and the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Moses and the Law, The sacrifice of Jesus, etc).
But what is sin? Can we say that genetic dispositions towards disease is sin?
I agree that there are many great people out there. But I wish we could all be great people... But then without some heirarchy of greatness we would just all be normal... Which would also be fine.
Well said.
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