Survival, Spirituality and Man's Greatness

In their 1980s hit “Eye of the Tiger,” The Survivors glorified “man's will to survive.”

It occurs to me that the hyena has the will to survive as well, and that the will to survive is nothing of which to be proud.

It makes sense to glorify man's will to achieve, or man's will to create, or man's will to contribute. It does not make sense to glorify something that is common to all of life. In an advanced civilization survival should be guaranteed; then the directions of man's effort will be toward practice that actually benefit the people.

I am perfectly willing to contribute to the society the things that I have to contribute to it. I am not willing to be engaged in a pursuit that pits my survival against that of other people. I want to contribute, and I want to be rewarded for contributing. I am in no way a bum. I want to do good and I want to do well.

This – wanting to do good and to do well – I regard as truly righteous arrangement. It benefits humanity at the holistic level, and it benefits humanity at the individual level. People are free to advance their interests; people are also free to help others. The result is humanity benefiting at all levels – once again, the definition of true good.

If humanity has evolved, then being willing to do good is a part of human design that leads to better conduct to fellow man. And if humanity was created, then the same will be a part of human makeup as well. In either case, being willing to do good things for the world are a necessary part of the human makeup; and both altruism and self-interest will be a part of human existence for as long as there is such a thing.

It makes every sense to reward those who make meaningful contributions. It makes no sense to support those who regard – either from scientific perspective or from the Christian perspective – those who are against this process. Neither science nor spirituality should be against man's greatness. And in wresting such things from the ideologies that condemn them humanity gets to benefit at all levels.