Is the impulse to criticize competing points of view an evolutionary development?

Are humans driven to reject, ridicule, and attack that with which we disagree because of something inside of us?

Have we developed the need to rationalize our beleiefs by attacking competing beliefs in order to satisfy internal herd instincts?

Egoism, selfishness, basically nature yes.

You see, when someone starts to have beliefs, they become...well defensive over those.

If someone were to not believe anything at all, and trust me, many of us have thousands of beliefs, you would in theory, see god like behavior. Something most "prophets" have always been trying to teach.

I'd say we have something inside us that causes us to believe certain things.

Maybe there is something inside us that causes us to reject other ideas.
And vehemently, at times.

Here's my nonscientific theory. We are all made up of different DNA from critters throughout the universe. We get our memories from our DNA.
And when we are mixed DNA critters, some DNA memories are much stronger than others.

So we adhere to these memories, that are strongest. Different species, different cultures, It's all born in us.

Some poor sap who was created on this planet, who rose from the primordial ooze, has only this memory. Me, however, was created by Star People. And my family has flourished here for eons. So my memories are different than those that first came out of the ooze.

So, obviously I look to the stars! And the poor sap looks to, well, ooze. lol

I'm just saying, nobody knows how or why we think the things we do.

We just do.

It's gonna take a whole lot of science and time to sort these things out.

Evolution.........heh..........it can go "wrong" and it can go "right". It's not a perfect sort of science is it? It's chance happening. From the very beginning, it was all a happy sort of occurance, meanwhile, needing adjustments at times.

No one knows. And that is the reason people disagree. Some have one idea another person has another idea. Who is "right" or "wrong"? None of us knows.

Meanwhile, I KNOW! How dare someone disagree with me!!!!

It's a human condition, my friend, and nobody has an answer, so far.

Good question, though.

reply to post by MarkusMaximus


I am sure there were points in human history where the difference between life and death was listening to your gut, and not the other guy's. It is certainly fair to assume that rejecting and ridiculing other's beliefs stems from this...

Interestingly, this theory can be adapted to fit multiple facets of belief and assumed origin...
If one believes in a Creator, this defensiveness can be assumed to be put inside us by that Creator, to protect belief in Him.
If one believes in a more scientific origin of mankind, genetic information can be recognized as the basis for belief defensiveness.
And it doesn't have to apply only to matters of spiritual faith...
Scientists are protective over their viewpoints, as politicians are too.

It is fair that people do not blindly believe what they have not come across or experienced. It is practically the same with everyone.You do not believe what a another person says,and he or she does not believe you. For many people,at some point in their life they may come across some evidence that may change their outlook. If you sit down quietly and reflect on your past life you may find that you have changed your point of view about certain things that you did not believe in before. Things that people do not believe in may be brought back to their attention at some time in their life.
The rat race,the constant fight to earn money to survive has created stress and other forms of obstruction that damaged the human ability and capacity to function properly. What ever you do not understand or believe,put it aside in your mind and one day you may come across the answers and how you look at it depends on your state of mind.
Why are earthlings called a hostile race? It is because of those who thinks and they are so intelligent that they want to dominate others,how others think,what others think.They do not want you to know the real truth about things.In a way, they try to sidetrack you,so that you will go on the wrong path. Read up a little about the psychology of human behaviour and study the behaviour of any person who is sarcastic to you and others (including the way they criticise people in their posts.
There are explainations to many things if you only care to look into it.

Hi,

No I've always been right!

Seriously, I think that some of it is down to our DNA - many of my friends and colleagues are beta people - they hate the mornings and only start coming to life mid afternoon/evening whilst I'm an alpha achieve lots early in the day and then start closing down mid afternoon.

Equally, I think that our individual experiences (or, as stated earlier - memories) - our upbringing for example, form many of our stronger beliefs and viewpoints.

Overall it must be a good thing to challenge and be challenged as this may well help us progress both individually (if we take time to consider the other viewpoint) and as a race.

Peace!