Why do people have such faith in humanity?

[Xenotechie]

Seriously,the problem is,bad stuff tend to get a lot more noticed than good deeds and such.Why?Because good is not really interesting.For all the pointless warfare there is even more peace or near peace which nobody cares about and doesn't end up in a lot of history books.And,I am pretty sure you are exagerrating about 90% of people being murderous bastards.Chances are we would all kill each other if that was true.There is just a lot of good people and good deeds that go unnoticed.

 

[Marik2]

And you people. The "No ones really nice or cares about people". Just eugh. Dont presume to know everyone. Especially me.

Ugh I fucking hate that mentality.

Makes my blood boil.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

You cheapen the wonder of existence by trying to apply perceived "rights" and "wrongs" to something that is so awe-inspiringly chaotic and fascinating.

You have a sandbox, and a body that is capable of feeling amazing given the right motivation or stimuli. Stop pretending it should be something else, and enjoy it for what it is.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

SNIP

You dont believe there are a million acts of kindness in the world? Bet you 1000 dollers there are. I reckon i can find a million on the web alone.

In event you accept please provide your paypall.

"I know people can suck."

Of course there is bad. I cant dispute that. But to say "Humanity" as a whole is evil or bad is ridiculous. Im not saying they are good. Im countering the notion they are all evil and bad, inherently so. I have not made the statement what you said was invalid. Or wrong. Im countering the statement "no one does anything other than look out for themselves" Which i predict you will deny saying, so ill quote you. Im saying that while you say it is ALL doom and gloom all im saying it is that it is not ALL doom and gloom, conceding that there is some doom and gloom present. I am saying that it is fairly balenced. I bet 1000000 dollers for every bad thing you can name i can name a good thing. A citation of good. For every citation of bad. There is as much good as bad, and to be gloomy because "everything sucks" is incorrect. EVERYTHING does not suck. Some stuff sucks. A lot doesnt. That is what you are meant to have faith in.

"The tiniest good deed carries more significance than the worst of atrocities"

 

[CrystalShadow]

Oh dear. You have absolutely no clue as to what evolution and in specific natural selection is. This sort of thinking is very dangerous, assigning your own values and morals to things that do not have them.

I never said I was a scientist, I just understand the basic principle, anything else aside from the functional ones must not breed, but how is it dangerous? Much more dangerous to assume humanity has good in them, and eventually fall to such an assumption, I would think.

No silly. You don't have a basic understanding of it. If you did you wouldn't explain it the way you just did.

You're reversing the logic that natural selection depends on.

It's not "Anything that's not successful must not breed".

It's "Anything which doesn't breed isn't successful."

That is completely different. Anything that can breed and survive is acceptable. Wether horrible and 'evil', or kind and 'good' is totally irrelevant to natural selection.
If you can survive in the world, and breed, you are a success.

If not, once you die there's no longer anything like you around, and so you've failed only in the sense that what you represent no longer exists.

 

[klasbo]

That's how evolution works, right?

No, not really.
Evolution as a concept (not only biological or psychological) is basically an iterative process of specialization: It's about taking random deviations on a sample, seeing which work best when applied to the situation given, then taking that sample and creating new deviations upon it.
Evolution is just a mechanism, and is just as concerned about "right" and "wrong" as y'' - u(1-y^2)y' + y = 0.

---

Your problem is that you're suffering from large doses of confirmation bias: Studying history as an indication on average human behaviour is flawed, because a large amount of bad/evil has a much larger impact than a large amount of good.

"History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind... with a bucket." - Mrs. Lintott (The History Boys)

And then you're looking for the same traits in humans you encounter, and you're trying to see the same patterns you see when you study history. And as humans, we are so damn good at seeing patterns that we see them even though they aren't even really there...

Most people are neither good nor bad, but you'll only see the bad if that's what you focus on.

 

[Galaxy Roll]

We might be a little slow on the uptake, but we always come around to the do the right thing eventually.

I think I'll quote one of my favorite philosophers of all time ever, Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Five Great Roman Emperors who lead Rome to one of it's heights:

Spoiler: To This Music

Oddly appropriate since Marcus spouted things like a real life Kamina​

Spoiler: Quotes!

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live.

---

And then to go with the music, I'll quote Simon:

We evolve! Beyond the person we were a minute before! Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn! That's how a drill works!

 

[tycho0042]

couldn't tell you why people retain such faith. god knows nothing but good would come if we all just died in our sleep one night

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Before i get started, i just want to say that I don't want this to come across as an emo thread, although I'm not feeling great at the moment, I largely just feel curious as to this:

Why do so many people have such faith in the "good" in humanity?

See, I've studied history alot. I've found that we seem to spend 90% of our time on pointless warfare. Even all those great steps we made; mostly made in the name of war, or in the course of war.

Also, it seems 90% of the people I have met in my life have been murderous bastards. See, I'm not wanted here. I'm not meant to be alive, I'm an evolutionary dead end. I'm faulty, and they hate me because of it, want me dead. That's how evolution works, right? The faulty elements must die before they breed, otherwise it brings in another generation of faulty beings. Such trials in life have made me very resilient, but it's me against most of the people i will ever meet. I don't expect to die a natural death, so I do all I can to improve things for other people like me while I'm still here. It isn't a nice way to live, but I suppose in a way I deserve it.

This evolutionary system is terrifyingly effective, but certainly not nice. Not ethical, not morally right. So why? Why do people have such faith in a species that is as successful as it is because it is cruel?

Because I am a good person who does the right thing whenever I can manage it and I feel like crap when I can't. I can't possibly be the only one, even though I've had some awful experiences and examples, and there's some good in people that you don't see unless you're really looking hard. There are good people out there, and that's reason enough to have "faith" that there are more than any one of us personally knows of - or a statistical likelihood that - given there being at least 1 or more good people, even if being a good person is entirely random, once something happens once it's somehow more likely to happen again. Don't ask me about the math, math isn't my thing - I'm lucky I half grasp the theory.

 

[CorinthianRed]

There are plenty of good people and deeds in the world.
It's just that stupid people and bad deeds make better ratings for news & T.V. shows.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

I've allways wondered what that meant. Faith in humanity's what? Ability to do good? Ability to be awesome? YOu don't need to look far for either.

I've allways wondered how people can claim humanity is brutal, even though an extremely slow minority would actually kill or harm anyone without their life being threatened. A lot not even than.

I've allways wondered how people can claim everyone is an asshole, while all they have to do is look.

I

 

[spartan231490]

There's nothing unethical or immoral about evolution. It is the essence of responsibility. If you are unable to survive, you don't. Also, I wouldn't say that 90% of people and our history is bad. I'd probably say 20% of people are bad, and 60-70% are apathetic. With history, I'd say 30% is bad, and probably almost 50% is neutral. There is a lot of good buried in humanity, it's just buried deep, but when it comes to the surface it shines bright enough to cut through the bad. That's my opinion anyway. Take it as you will.

 

[Doclector]

Let me teach you the definition of faith. Faith: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

So why do you believe people want you to die? I don't understand what your situation is but believing what believe is...unhealthy. I feel like that it's a pretty serious matter to feel like you an evolutionary dead end. I hope the Escapist moderators, or you, do not find this to be offensive but are you unable to have children? That is the only way I could understand the "evolutionary dead end" bit.

Also, you are meant to be here. If you were not, you would not be here. It is as simple as that. Any details you may attach to that are just negative excuses. Period.

There are people who unintentionally have children and don't want them, however that does not make the child a mistake. It just makes the parents idiots for thinking that sex is disconnected from childbirth. This may not be your situation so I'll stop running on that tangent.

I don't look good, I don't, rather can't, act normal, I'm everything a normal human being isn't supposed to be, thus being faulty.

I also have aspergers syndrome, officially diagnosed, not self, but that is the thing that is least wrong with me.

I feel people want me dead because they did all throughout school. I tried to figure out why, and this is the only thing I could come out with. Everyone else seems perfect biologically, physically and mentally. People still stare at me. All the time, staring judging.

I use to think I was an accident and I thought I had a right to feel that way. That was pointless and stupid on my part. It does not matter how you or I got here. What matters is what we make out of our lives while we are living.

Also, you can't be completely surrounded by "enemies." There must be some friends and family members whom you cherish and who cherish you in return. No one can live a life full of hatred; people like that end up being like Sasuke (sorry for the bad Naruto joke)

of course. There are always other "faulty" people. They tend to be kinder as they know what it is like to be on the receiving end of abuse, but they are in short supply. There are the occasional exceptions. People who are perfect but still act kind to me. They confuse me. There is no reason to like me. No logic. But if they were to betray me, they would've done it by now. But these people are in even shorter supply than the faulty people.

 

[Tanakh]

See, I've studied history alot. I've found that we seem to spend 90% of our time on pointless warfare. Even all those great steps we made; mostly made in the name of war, or in the course of war.

I'll take your word on history, but mate you need to improve that math!

Let's do a real world example. Take USA, big army and all, they have an active military forces of 1477896 and a population of 308745538, that is they have 0.47% directly involved in warfare; now let's say that double of that actually are indirectly involved in warfare, that would mean that in USA around 1% of the people spend their time on warfare!

Now, take Rome, when it was an empire it had a 20 million populace and a 1 million army. That gives you a 10% of their population in warfare!!

The more you know

Sides, warfare is awesome, not all of it, sometimes its pointless, still, big wars are awesome.

 

[deofayte]

It's a sad fact that yes a vast disgusting number of people are horrible, selfish, dickheads that the world as a whole wouldn't miss much.

It's also a disturbing opinion of mine that the more we advance as a species the more we seem to be making it easier and easier for them.

Natural selection and evolution aren't playing a huge role in our development right now because we're advancing faster than those things work, and we're kinda fighting against them. We encourage our weak, protect them, go above and beyond giving special treatment and many of them outlive our strong. Is that a bad thing (NO) but natural selection might have an argument. We're also changing as a whole faster than evolution works through technology into area's that we choose.

Sure our history sucks, mankind as a whole makes the same mistakes often for the same stupid reasons but sooner or later we have to learn as a whole right? If you can't believe that we will learn eventually... and if in fact we don't, then yes we're fucked.

Just my opinion

 

[Manji187]

In the end...life is a choice between compassion and despair.

 

[Darknacht]

Also, it seems 90% of the people I have met in my life have been murderous bastards.

If this is true, move. There are very few places outside of maximum security prisons and war zones that are full of that many violent people.

 

[ShamusEricks]

I have read to a lot of the posts already on this thread, and There's a lot that I would disagree with. in the interests of saving time, I'll make my own case.

Some people put their faith in humanity. Some People don't. I don't put faith in anything. My personal belief is that faith has little place in anything, because in its essence, faith is simply trust without logic. I trust in man's ability to prevail, because he has done so in the past. I trust in select others because I know they will succeed. History shows that man makes himself. For this reason, I don't give a damn if you have faith in, or trust humanity, but you better damn well trust yourself, and earn that trust.

 

[Anthony Abney]

So, you are of the opinion humanity in itself is evil? Bad? Wrong?

Due to how you worded that I will reply in both manners that can be derived from it.

If you meant it in a sarcastic way then, high fives on your observance!

If you meant it in a sincere way then, Yes I do. There is no part of humanity that I believe in. Husbands beating wives, wives cheating on husbands, soldiers raping and murdering the weak and innocent they are meant to protect, governments destroying people and treating them like serial numbers attacked to bank accounts and corporations bleeding you dry of your life (working for them) and money (buying from them)

Support groups like Oxfam are corrupt (as reports have revealed the charity money they raise mostly goes into the pockets of the higher ups in the company) and if we tone it down to a more localized circling:

Friends betray each other for petty reasons, relationships fail due to weak hearts and broken morality and when was the last time you saw someone go out of their way to help a stranger when nothing was to be gained from it?

Hence why my life's motto is - Assume the worst, hope for the best because you can't disappoint a cynic nor deceive a Skeptic.

"no part of humanity that I believe in" So you don't believe in yourself?

"support groups like Oxfam are corrupt" You don't need support groups to help those who need it, you just have to find and help them yourself

"when was the last time you saw someone go out of their way to help stranger when nothing was to be gained from it?" When was the last time YOU went out of YOUR way to help a stranger? Don't wait for others to do good things, do them yourself.

MY life motto is: If you don't like the way things are, don't sit there and complain, get up and do something about it.

 

[Mantonio]

ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST

You're the equivalent of a blind man saying that light doesn't exist.

Here's the cure: Get down from that cross, use the wood to build a bridge and then get over it.

I don't get if I get 'suspended' for saying this. You need to hear it.