Foreword: I am an atheist; which means that I do not hold religious beliefs nor submit to the notion of a being of "paranormal" powers. That does not mean that I rule out the concept of Aliens or other dimensional properties or probabilities.
If you take a look at a young child you will notice a universal personality trait; They show no real concern for anyone other than themselves. This is a developmental hurdle that they will overcome with time: the ability to empathize. Nevertheless, this fundamental selfishness is very evident through out a person's entire life. It is derived, I believe, by the simple need for self preservation. When our bodies are tired, in pain, or hungry they let us know. Now if you had no spoken language or knowledge of communication you couldn't quite comprehend these notions, but you knew how to fix them. So the child cries in frustration fear and even anger at his/her inability to fulfill basic needs. That's when under normal circumstances mom or dad would arrive to satiate, soothe, and secure so the child will shut up fulfilling their basic need for sleep. From here on out the child begins to understand that crying gets the job done and that he/she must rely on the parents for all the basic needs for survival. This "selfishness" is permanently ingrain in our brains.
Once this child has grown up and is forced to survive on it's own, which is common, those selfish needs will arise again. Only now the young adult has the means to feed and provide for it's self .. in most situations. It is this transition from home though, that brings about those long lost feelings for comforting. Mom or dad is no longer readily at hand to satiate, soothe, and secure.
It is knowledge of this desire that lead men to create religions. It can be seen in almost all forms of religion around the world and varying slightly in each culture. There are always rules, just like there were at home, as well as chores, punishments, rewards, and "love". Religions teach the individuals how to manifest their own form of God that will bend to their will just as mom and dad did when they were children. Did you really think it was a coincidence that God is called the father to some and mother to others?
You can take yourself as the example and know that at any given time you can feel guilt, anger, jealousy, and even fear that all revolve around a need or a want. We are selfish creatures that want to have our way at all time. Be it video games, candy, drugs, sex, gambling etc... The same goes for wanting to linger on once we realized we would some day die. WE can't possibly die We are too important, WE have things to do, WE cannot let go of anything that WE want. Very rarely do WE ever sacrifice for THEY or just HIM/HER. Even when we have children of our own we have selfish desires for approval from them, and a selfish need to continue our bloodlines.
Am i saying humans are awful ? yes, am I included YES!!!! Am I saying that all of this selfishness is bad, no!(just one exclamation). But the thing that separates us from other selfish creatures is that we can recognize our own selfishness and seldom do anything about it. That is why there are still 3rd world countries. That is why there is mass amounts of ignorance, war, hatred, and death.
Perhaps, though, this is what keeps our numbers in check. Nature will always win in the checks and balances game no matter how hard we try. The wills of the few will always rule the needs of the many. Don't let it get you down though, if you're reading this you have a computer and the internet. You aren't starving, or hiding, you aren't lurking in the dark waiting for the next victim or customer. Those people are likely not to propagate. Then it will just be us selfish people. Eventually enough super selfish will impinge upon the very selfish who will impinge upon the moderately selfish and it will end with a big bang, just as it began. And then we'll do it all over again.
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