Mankinds Worst Mistake

[Q]

Procreation.

[Web Rider]

Mankind's worst mistake, hmmm, that's a tricky one. In recent history, I'd go with the Cold War. In AD history, I think I'd go with the Dark Ages. In history in general, I'd probly go with religious warfare/intolerance.

 

This is of course, mistakes that ALL or a significantly large portion of humanity participated in. Not mistakes caused by a small faction, like the Holocaust.

[Tommycat]

Mankind's biggest mistake: Personally I think the post WWI actions which led to WWII would have to be right up there at the top as far as recent history. Though if we are going of all time, definately the concept of ownership. Religion itself wasn't the problem as those using it simply as a tool to gather support so that they could own more stuff. Granted it has driven the many inventions, made many lives better, but truth be told it has caused more problems than anything else in this world.

[Q]

^^^

While I understand what you're saying, I believe that lack of ownership would only work in a perfect world, where people are incapable of selfishness. Here in reality, it's the concept of ownership that inspires us to achieve. It's ugly and imperfect for sure, but it works because it's based on realism, not idealism.

 

Oh, and I'll throw in another big-time mistake of the modern age: Imperialism.

[Rev7]

The Apple.

QFE.

 

Short and sweet.

[mimartin]

Poisoning our own environment, something along the lines defecating where you eat sound pretty stupid to me.

 

Beyond that, I believe it is our attitude that we are owed something by society and life in general.

 

Of course, our stupidest mistake is the one that has yet to be discovered, the one that will destroy us all.

[JCarter426]

Religion itself wasn't the problem as those using it simply as a tool to gather support so that they could own more stuff.

 

Good point. However, take away religion, and could anyone have done that? Probably yes, but not as easily, I bet.

 

Oh, and I'll throw in another big-time mistake of the modern age: Imperialism.

 

There go the last 200 years.

[Ravnas]

^^^

While I understand what you're saying, I believe that lack of ownership would only work in a perfect world, where people are incapable of selfishness. Here in reality, it's the concept of ownership that inspires us to achieve. It's ugly and imperfect for sure, but it works because it's based on realism, not idealism.

 

Oh, and I'll throw in another big-time mistake of the modern age: Imperialism.

 

Yay!!! Communism is the answer

[Jae Onasi]

Mankinds's worst mistake was religion, IMO.

 

Tell that to the thousands of AIDS victims and people with other health problems that our Christian missionary doctor is treating in Africa. The Cameroon gov't doesn't have enough resources to treat them all, and no other secular organization has cared enough to go help.

[Arcesious]

Then I'll revise... Mankind's worst mistakes were blind faith/religiously based wars...

 

Tell that to the thousands of AIDS victims and people with other health problems that our Christian missionary doctor is treating in Africa.

 

I see your point. But you don't have to be a Christian to help people... However the mentality of religion to help, love, and care for others is not one we shoudl throw away. That is the good thing that came from religion, was being taught to help others. The bad part of religion is the part that tells you to deny logic and evidence...

[Ravnas]

Tell that to the thousands of AIDS victims and people with other health problems that our Christian missionary doctor is treating in Africa. The Cameroon gov't doesn't have enough resources to treat them all, and no other secular organization has cared enough to go help.

 

From what I know, not many religious organizations have been over there as well. Besides, I'm not saying what your doctor is doing isn't doing is a bad thing, but most Christians use their time by protesting nonstop.

[Jae Onasi]

I see your point. But you don't have to be a Christian to help people... .

I agree. However, no one else has stepped up to the plate to help out these people.

[Rev7]

^

Unfortunately...

[Arcesious]

Sadly no one else will do it... I agree, it's a tragedy.

[True_Avery]

Our first biggest mistake was evolving into humans in the first place.

 

Our second biggest mistake was not evolving into the Bonobo first.

[Totenkopf]

Our first biggest mistake was evolving into humans in the first place.

 

Our second biggest mistake was not evolving into the Bonobo first.

 

 

No, that was nature's mistake.

[DarthJebus05]

Letting Uwe Boll direct Farcry...

[Totenkopf]

Don't you mean letting Uwe Boll direct anything?

[True_Avery]

No, that was nature's mistake.

Then I blame nature for every single thing humans have done and will do.

 

Or, I can name some simple thing that has happened in the tens of thousands of years we have been around and call it the "worst thing" we have ever done... which I would blame on the way we are programmed.

 

Or, I could blame religion or something. Being that religion has always been around humans as far as we can tell, I think we can blame that on nature programming out minds that way. War is just colliding beliefs using a lot of destruction, so I'd blame that on how inherently violent we are... which I would also blame on nature.

 

Basically, I think most human problems can be traced back to how we evolved to perceive things and each other socially. I wont single out any event or series of events and even attempt to call it the worst thing humans have ever done, because I don't know everything terrible we have done. The worst thing we have done is also relative, seeing as many "terrible" things eventually lead to "good" things and vice-versa. Generally, what we do to each other is similar to what we have been doing to each other for tens of thousands of years and wont be stopping until we evolve into something resembling the Bonobo or die out in some fashion.

 

Or, I could name some amusing game or movie series for laughs.

[mur'phon]

Our second biggest mistake was not evolving into the Bonobo first.

Good point, their way of solving conflicts apear to be rather, eh, stimulating

 

Tell that to the thousands of AIDS victims and people with other health problems that our Christian missionary doctor is treating in Africa.

 

On the other hand, thousands of AIDS victims die because of the rabid anti condom stance promoted by many christians. A hammer is not good because it can help build a house, nor evil because it can help murder people.

[Web Rider]

Then I blame nature for every single thing humans have done and will do.

 

using determinist theory, which is basically what you did, Humans ahve no free will, and everything we do is the result of how the electrons first collided when life first sprang into existance.

[True_Avery]

using determinist theory, which is basically what you did, Humans ahve no free will, and everything we do is the result of how the electrons first collided when life first sprang into existance.

"It is a popular misconception that determinism necessarily entails that humanity or individual humans have no influence on the future and its events (a position known as Fatalism); however, determinists believe that the level to which human beings have influence over their future is itself dependent on present and past."

 

"Determinism is the thesis that future events are necessitated by past and present events combined with the laws of nature."

 

- The doctrine that all facts and events exemplify natural laws.

- The doctrine that all events, including human choices and decisions, have sufficient causes.

- The philosophical doctrine that every state of affairs, including every human event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of antecedent (prior) states of affairs.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/determinism

 

Cause and effect. One thing leads to another. The concept that we have "free" will is silly, because everything we do and believe is based around what the world around us has done, is doing, and will/might do. Free will would entail that no outside influence could change the way we act in our lives.

 

The way we work socially and physically is based around what we changed from and into. If you go far enough down the line, you can "blame" nature for turning us into what we are. Or we can "blame" ourselves by letting it become a normal. Either way, the worst mistake we made, or that nature made, was letting us turn into what we are. Everything else is just minor details throughout history.

 

Like I said, I wont pick out an event like World War II (Holocaust, Hitler, etc) because despite how bad it may have been, good did come out of it. Much of the world settled down into ties of friendship and unity. We found a huge number of new medical information from the Nazis and Japanese that have saved billions. We created a United Nations that has helped billions across the globe.

 

Every action will have an equal and opposite reaction. A woman who is raped may adopt an orphan child in need of a mother because she can no longer have any. A war may eventually lead to the unity and help of billions. Your house burning down may lead to you meeting your spouse in the new area you live. A close friend or family member's death may push you into helping other people.

 

A mistake or tragedy is only one as long as you focus completely on the negative.

 

"If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

-Thomas Alva Edison

 

On the other hand' date=' thousands of AIDS victims die because of the rabid anti condom stance promoted by many christians. A hammer is not good because it can help build a house, nor evil because it can help murder people.[/quote']

Quoted for complete truth.

[Tommycat]

To be sure, many of the things that are deemed horrible have actually proved to be good.

 

For Example WWII. Deemed pretty well bad. However we learned a lot about triage and saving lives from the medical journals of Japanese doctors that were performing experiments on Chinese prisoners.

 

War in general. From war we got radar, Lasers, CRT's Computers, microwaves, Satelites, GPS, and countless other items we use in day to day life. Heck the internet sprang from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration. First DARPA, then ARPA, Then ARPANET, then internet. We also got many of our "less than lethal" weapons from the military as well.

 

**edit: Rats looks like Avery beat me to it. Must have read the same book or something. My mother was a nurse, and I was studying to become a doctor, until I learned that I get a bit uneasy inside a hospital. We're talking panic attacks..... So I got into other ways to help people.

[Pho3nix]

Our worst mistake? being human.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Though if we are going of all time, definately the concept of ownership. Religion itself wasn't the problem as those using it simply as a tool to gather support so that they could own more stuff. Granted it has driven the many inventions, made many lives better, but truth be told it has caused more problems than anything else in this world.

Can you picture yourself as a Buddhist monk, owning nothing? I can't, he can't and the guy next to hi certainly can't. That was the very first concept of Communism, hence why we've never had truly Communism.

 

Our second biggest mistake was not evolving into the Bonobo first.

 

Very true.