Does Being Kind Mean You are Closer to Evolving?

In my Opinion ...

If feelings had something to do with evolution .... then we're all doomed. I'm sorry to be blunt on the subject but, really? Thats like saying that monkeys were @-holes with thumbs that couldn't walk upright but one of the monkeys was nicer than the other ones ... and this one monkey created a REVOLUTION ... (Viva la monkey Revoloucion)... a revolution of kindness. Im sorry but in no way shape or form will emotion lead us or any other being in that matter to evolution.

Kindness wont lead to evolution, (maybe high fives and hugs), but understanding might. So maybe just maybe we might learn to understand, and until we all do this "understanding" thing with each other, we're doomed.

looks like we're in it for the long haul.

reply to post by TheUntoldStory


exactly, evolving is simply evolving fact reality, which is simply starting to recognize openly that positive is a linear sense, so you can start to accept evolving as a concept at least

it is really wide crazy how the least of common sense is monstruously attacked in such overwhelming way

Originally posted by Xcalibur254
reply to post by wayaboveitall

 

No species ever stops adapting to their environment. That would assume that there is a goal to evolution, which is impossible. All of our technology would not be possible if we did not learn to adapt to our environment. Things like the physics are all part of our environment and as we learn more about the laws that govern the universe we are able to create better technology, which in turn leads to a longer lifespan and better health. People claim that our technology removes us from evolution, but our technology is an adaptation to our environment, which in turn leads to fitter organisms.

Boy, did you hit that on the head. I am a bit ashamed, because as a teacher of the history of technology, I should have figured it out. I have taken in to strong consideration that technology is the artifact of the human mind. But it's a chicken and egg question. Do we think that technology drives us, or we drive it ? I think its a combination of both, but only to a point. At some point our multiple societies will "tip" from the industrial age to the true age of information. Last I think the technology we are creating every day is changing us as a spieces. We are in the process of adapting. The problem is it's very hard to see this when your right in the middle of it...

Originally posted by InertiaZero
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

In my opinion, doing something kind in order to recieve something is just being selfish in a round about way.

I think true kindness, is when you do something and expect nothing at all in return.

I completely agree.

I remember many occasion where someone has said something like "why don't you xxxx, why are you being so selfish?"

Well, if I do what that person wants when I have said I don't want to, are THEY not being selfish to be so expectant at the cost of my unhappiness about it?

Also, what may seem kind to one person may not be so kind to another. Sometimes you just can't win and have to make choices that don't sit well with all involved. Life's like that sometimes....you can't please all the people all the time.

I think "evolution" has much to do with this, but maybe only in a spiritual sense, it's more a case of happiness and self security and being in a position to give freely to others needs.

Happy and secure people do more for others without expecting anything in return because their own needs are more fulfilled.

Unhappy and insecure people have needs that must be satisfied before or in return for their acts of kindness.

Energy is the key.

If you have it or can create it, it's easy to give it.

If you don't have it or can't create it, it's often natural and neccessary to steal it by way of guilt, lies and deception.

It's all around us and within us, and acts at every moment of our lives....but being invisible in essence, it's hard to "see" the results of our actions and interactions except from another persons reactions which are often hard to decipher and can involve many unknown factors.

"Feelings" are the most powerful known energy (I think) and get misunderstood and misused all the time. I try to feel how my actions affect the world around me, because at the end of the day....the world, "my" world is what I make it, so there's nobody to blame but me if I do something that upsets another or reflects badly on me.

Interesting stuff eh? and thanks for the thread, I"ll keep tabs and return.

Cheers...nerb

ps, who's that in your avatar, she looks familiar? (Jap icon perhaps?...final fantasy? )

reply to post by Caggy

However, I'm grumpy as hell. A kind hearted grumpy woman, as weird as it sounds so both theories stands I'm nore evolved

lol. I like this. I'm grumpy sometimes, too, especially in the mornings, but somehow I think "acts" over-ride a
temperamental disposition at times. In a perfect world we might be all smiles and love and light, but if we are not, I don't think it detracts from our motivation and willingness to perform good acts in hopes of bettering someone's life and circumstances.

reply to post by InertiaZero


Being kind leaves you open to people stepping all over you and taking advantage, your better off not getting involved with anyone

Look at all these people suing Good Samaritans for helping them, I've seen it alot, people getting sued for performing the heimlich manuver or cpr...pathetic

reply to post by HomerinNC


But isn't that just fear, defining what your actions will be?

no its keeping yourself from getting hemmed up by folk just looking to do this

Firstly, the phrase "Survival of the fittest" is not a phrase coined by Darwin, although he did later use it in his books.

Secondly we are absolutely not the only species that shows "Kindness" in a certain sense it can be thought of as an evolutionary adaptation for animals that live in social groups rather then as individuals, for a herd animal there are advantages to acting in an altruistic way. Dolphins for example help sick members of their pods helping them to breathe by pushing them to the surface, Raccoons inform other Raccoons of the location of feeding grounds through scent marking.

These actions can be seen as both Altruistic and Selfish, they don't have an advantage for the individual but they help the species as a whole survive.

There are also cases of Dogs adopting animals of other species and raising them, although I'm not sure what advantage this is for the dog.. Companionship maybe...

Great thread, funny I was thinking this the other day! When I was younger I moved around alot after my parents divorced. I grew up (from time I can remember to 7 years of age) Very spoiled, My parents were bringing home about 1,800$ a week in 1992 I was 5 years old with a queen size water bed and walk in closet. Of course I was waaaaaay to young to know that we were doing well, I thought everyone lived the way I did. Once my parents divorced we moved alot, I lost alot of my clothes and belonging, my mother got hooked on drugs and lost her good job, and my dad couldnt afford to take care of me and my brother on his own as he moved back in with his parents. So my grandma took us in. It was right about that time I started to get teased for my old shoes, or for wearing shorts and tank tops in the winter, I became very insecure and kept to myself. But whenever a new kid came into the school I would latch on to them and offer my pencils, or crayons, or markers, show them the library and sit with them at lunch because I knew what it was like to be the new kid. Moving 5 times in one year! and then twice a year almost every year after. Finally my mom got her head together and got my brother and I back, she remarried a man who owned his own business and things started to look up, worrying about clothes was a thing in the past, by my 16th bday I had a car waiting for me (something I thought could never happen to me) and I started to act very snotty,(all the years of being picked on it felt good to be apart of the in crowd ya know?) But here I sit almost 25 years old and I have lived some hard knocks losing my father to cancer and my first daughter to a birth deffect, lets say I have been humbled. It is not the materal things in life but the emotional things in life, I have been to the brink of hell and back and in my soul searching I have come to realize that it is not time that heals wounds or broken hearts, it is love that heals all, and thankfully I had alot of love and support during my hardest of times, and I have reverted to my old ways of being helpful and kind, and yes sometimes people try to take advantage, but I am older now and I know how to get my point across with a smile on my face. I do not allow people to walk all over me like when I was a child.

After my father and daughter passed a year and a half apart I went down a hard path of not having faith in anything, and to be honest just wanting to die! But once I started to heal and researched religions and emotional self help books, and two years of theorapy, I often wondered why we all couldnt just be kind to one another. Why is there so much hate? I do think it is harder to be kind, Since my healing, My favorite saying is "Kill them with kindness" kind of an oxy moran...but its the truth. When someone is negative to me I will give them a compliment on their hair or their smile, or their nails, shoes, whatever it is that will make them feel good about themselves, and eventually, their attitude towards me changes. If someone who is normally rude to me is in desperate need of a cigerett or a few bucks for gas I will give it to them, and when I am in need a few have returned the favor.... I wish the world could see past all of our differences and just be kind and respectful to eachother... I have spent so much of my time and energy as a teenager being mean and nasty just because I could. Have you ever felt emotionally drained after an argument, I know I have it takes so much energy out of you when its focused on a negative.

This video is not strictly on topic for this thread, but it does display that animals have the capability of displaying emotions that we mainly think of as being human...

I challenge even the most emotionless of you to be unaffected by this

reply to post by davespanners


OMG.
This is a keeper. I would never have thought anything like that was possible.
Uh, about the emotions....Yes! I'm weeping!

I cried the first time I saw this clip too. There is a whole documentary about the two guys somewhere which I will try to find, they bought the Lion up in a tiny apartment in London

Im reminded of something I observed as a child in my family.

My father, always ate last. At gatherings and at home...he waited until all others got their plate of food. I can remember being at family gatherings and my grandmother only made enough fried chicken to barely feed the bunch...I, always looking out for my humble father who many seemed to walk all over...would encourage him to go ahead and get a plate of food after I got my plate (kids always got to get a plate first). He would smile and say 'I will'. But he would wait, stalling time, waiting for everyone to get their food. Sometimes this meant that he did not get what would of been his 'choice' of food items...he never would say a word though. As I grew up...I noticed it was more then just letting everyone else eat first, it was also letting everyone get their pick of clothes for the winter time while he took the last little money that was left and bought him a couple pairs of wrangler jeans for the winter. Often, there were no gifts for dad at Christmas. On his birthday, no one seemed to of gotten him anything, while every birthday of mine, my brothers, and even our friends, we felt someone celebrating 'us'. He worked long hours and sometimes 7 days a week. About 12 years ago..my mother become really sick. About 6 years ago she went on full time bed rest after breaking both hips. My father, who still worked over full time in his 50's, did not bat an eye when the choice came to keep mom at home and care for her or place her in a nursing home. He would come home from sometimes a 12 hour day, clean her and the home, and cook, as well as tend to a grandchild of his that would stay with him on the weekends.

Eventually, Dad started to brake (depression hit him for he could not do all the things he wanted to do in helping her)...the things that were natural to him to do, in his nature, become too much. After caring for her at home for almost 5 years (my brother and I cared for her during the days while he worked)...the doctors and mom decided that it would be best she goes into a nursing home where she could have therapy daily and not worry about infections so much within her leg (its a open wound leg and this took extra care in itself). Edit to add...dad also took in his father after his stroke before mom got real sick, they had a bed for him in the living room and he was bed ridden totally, they whole family cared for him and he never went into a nursing home. Stuff like that is not 'normal' these days. People make excuses, but my mother, father and brother who still lived with mom and dad at that time, pitch in together and took care of him till he passed.

He taught me, unconditional kindness....even till it wears you to the bone. To this day, I get old school friends that I connect with after all these years and one of the first things they tell me about is how much my father influenced them in their life. He placed faith in people, he gave hope often where it could not be found. I really dont think he did this to make himself feel good...unless you see it as the perspective that as others smiled, he smiled.

I think it takes more to be kind, then to not be kind. Sometimes kindness comes easy, maybe even most of the time. But sometimes, its not easy...and this is I think, the nature of someone that has evolved in some way.

Its funny, have you ever watch a 2 year old in a room with a parent or even a stranger (there was a test done for psychological evaluation somewhere, there is a video of this) and the parent or stranger would drop something on purpose and pretend it was a accident....what reaction came fromt he 2 year old? To help, to pick up the object and offer it back to the person that dropped it.

I think its in our nature....but the outside influences of life and the attributes of being a individual become so blinding we forget/cover that inner nature of us. We get hurt, we get taken advantage of, we get used...so we build a wall. Sometimes we become selfish and live in solitude due to it. Greed may take over, things like pride may be our base for our decision making later in life.

So whats with the ones that even through the hurt, being taken advantage of...they still, offer themselves to others over pleasing their own self? I think there IS something to say about those types.

My best
LV

reply to post by davespanners


I just love that video...so tender and pure

@lady-ditto on the crying lady...every time I just clicked on it and my eyes are full of tears, but good tears...the best ones!

Only if you don't try to draw attention to how kind you are.

It's like those so-called enlightened people who always preach about their beliefs. How can you be enlightened and still not know when you're trying to be exalted for it?

reply to post by TheUntoldStory


I think what the OP was trying to get at here, is if we were all kinder to eachother would it help us to evolve as a society. I think it would diffently higher our vibrations, and help us evolve spirtually.