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From: john@x.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion,net.flame
Subject: Re: A Question!
Message-ID: <414@x.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 16:27:48 EST
Article-I.D.: x.414
Posted: Thu Feb 28 16:27:48 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Mar-85 04:20:44 EST
References: <776@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 32
Xref: watmath net.politics:7907 net.religion:5825 net.flame:8645

> A person who, not so long ago was the idol of millions poised a question
> that I would like someone to answer please.
> "Why shouldn't human beings be as cruel as nature is?"
>                               - Adolf Hitler
> Anyone want to try and explain it.  Of course we know religion is bosh and
> unscientific and unrational so can the Uzibsmo says stuff.  I mean just
> why should humans be DIFFERENT than other things in nature?
> Regards,
> Ken Arndt

Having accidentally missed the 'n' key on Arndt's article, I found it uniquely
worth answering.  How about:  Human beings appear to uniquely have a choice
in the matter (you don't see wombats sitting in French cafe's drinking
espresso and debating philosophy, do you?).  Choosing to strive to build
generates pleasure in many humans (a simple, animalistic maximization function
that even Ken can appreciate:-).

Further, evolutionary pressure would seem to discourage mindless cruelty, as
humans seem to have accumulated an excess of members who would rather not be
mindlessly cruel, to the point where they will fight bloody battles to stop
those who are.

Further discussion of this ought to go to net.philosophy, because it might
just turn out to be interesting.  However, since this is net.flame, I guess
I must say something unreasonable.  How about:  I have to remember to fix
rnews to discard Arndt articles.  Has anyone done this yet, in case I am
re-inventing the wheel (:-)?
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

Sorry, I don't feel deep right now.