I am home sick today. I woke up with a hacking cough. Luckily, it was timed such that I didn’t have to go to school today. I feel fine now — ah, the wonders of today’s medicinal technologies. Unfortunately, I have a band dress rehearsal after school today. Knowing my band teacher, I don’t think missing it would be beneficial to my grade, even with my being absent today. Now, on to today’s topic:

All actions of humans are inherently selfish. Let’s go through indirect reasoning to try to prove my example: Assume that all actions of humans are not inherently selfish. Then, humans would perform actions that are not beneficial to them. It would seem almost all actions that don’t provide benefit would provide harm. If humans harmed themselves, natural selection would act against that and weed out those who harm themselves. Even if actions don’t seem to cause harm, they expend energy. If there is too much energy expended in a wasteful manner, and harm will be caused.

Actions that seem altruistic are really selfish on a subconscious level. Giving promotes reciprocality. I lend you a piece of paper, you’ll lend me one. I give you help, you’ll help me when I need it. Giving also promotes one in social status. Look at what that person gave, he’s a good person. I’m going to go associate with him. Even those who give in private… I’m giving in private, this is what my God wants me to do; I’m going to heaven. Or, I’m giving, I’m getting a good feeling inside. Now, I have the ability to compete because I can call the others hypocrites.

There is one type of action that seems to contradict my ideas: self-sacrifice. By sacrifice, I mean death. Now, this doesn’t seem to produce any evolutionary good. By killing yourself, you wipe out your genes from the gene pool. Protecting children, however, propagates your genes. It’s better to protect their genetic viability than oneself’s genetic viability which is more spent. In the end, it comes down to this, the basic unit of evolution is a population, not an individual. Though it’s not the exact genes of the individual, the genes for those similar are still being passed on.

What about sacrificing for ideals? Well, the person who’s sacrificing wants the ideal to propagate. It also elevates the social status very high. Relatives can benefit from the status.

This supports my idea that there is no absolute moral good and evil. Good is what, in the bottom line, helps you and evil is that which harms you. Evil is what harms the society you live in. Harmed societies are less stable and less safe to live in. Less safety decreases your chance of living. So, in the end good still boils down to what is beneficial to you, even when it seems to be on a societal level.