انگیزه!؟

Recently a friend posed the following question:

Some people/theories believe that the motivation behind all human's actions (good or bad) is one of the above sins or vices (Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Anger, Envy and Pride). What do you think?

I think, humans are just some advanced animals that got a bigger brain (relative to their size) just by chance (perhaps due to a different diet!) where the bigger brain somehow led to language and thinking. So, I don't think there is anything divine or holy about humans and I don't think humans have any God given missions on earth.

Almost all human traits, behaviors and even social phenomena like religion can be traced back to something that was necessary for survival (whether individual or group survival) at some point in our evolution but as some of those necessities have vanished or changed (due to agricultural revolution and emergence of civilizations) those traits and behaviors have evolved too, where some of them might now be considered sin or vice.

So, first of all I don't think these are necessarily sin or vice. Second, I think this is a pretty good list. Third, having said that, I think this is as good as any other list because I don't think it really matters. Does anybody care what the motivation behind animal actions are? At the end, we are all going to die and that is it. So, it all boils down to the fact that how the mind of each one us would like to justify our existence so we don't feel void and fear and uselessness. It all comes down to how each one of us define the meaning of our life.

So, if one wants to think that there are other motivations that "sound" good or better than the ones listed here because it makes one feel better, so be it. It's your life and your justification, you can think whatever you like, yet again it doesn't matter in the big picture. It's just a personal choice.

دنیای رمزآلود

This is an excerpt from the book The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans.

Standing on our microscopic fragment of a grain of sand, we attempt to discover the nature and purpose of the universe which surrounds our home in space and time. Out first impression is something akin to terror. We find the universe terrifying because of its vast meaningless distances, terrifying because of its inconceivably long vistas of time which dwarf human history to the twinkling of an eye, terrifying because of our extreme loneliness, and because of the material insignificance of our home in space - a millionth part of a grain of sand out of all the sea-sand in the world. But above all else, we find the universe terrifying because it appears to be indifferent to life like our own; emotion, ambition and achievement, art and religion all seem equally foreign to its plan. Perhaps indeed we ought to say it appears to be actively hostile to life like our own. For the most part, empty space is so cold that all life in it would be frozen; most of the matter in space is so hot as to make life on it impossible; space is traversed, and astronomical bodies continually bombarded, by radiation of a variety of kinds, much of which is probably inimical to, or even destructive of, life.