Agnostic.com

63 7

What is the root of all the problems in the world?

ABack 6 Mar 10
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

63 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

6

The root is human nature. Beyond that are things like greed, need for safety and simplicity. In addition, psychopaths contribute. Wikipedia says, "Psychopathy has a much higher prevalence in the convicted and incarcerated population, where it is thought that an estimated 15–25% of prisoners qualify for the diagnosis. A study on a sample of inmates in the UK found that 7.7% of the inmates interviewed met the PCL-R cut-off of 30 for a diagnosis of psychopathy. A study on a sample of inmates in Iran using the PCL😕V found a prevalence of 23% scoring 18 or more. A study by Nathan Brooks from Bond University found that around one in five corporate bosses display clinically significant psychopathic traits - a proportion similar to that among prisoners." .....Etc.

@SeaGreen I know that villages that rely on their neighbors to survive are not greed among the villagers. However, they tend to be fearful of outsiders and protect their self defined borders. Moreover, people tend to treat family members and close friends much better than others. If you know of a culture that does not have greedy who don't care about security, and who prefer complexity, please let us know. Which culture is it? I think the study done by Brooks is not dependent on culture.

6

Corruption and greed.

Lilie Level 6 Mar 10, 2018
4

Stupidity?

4

Every comment so far, has humans in the center. I live on an island and there are no predators. Here the rabbit and deer populations have exploded. The deer often starve in the winter and the rabbits get to a certain size and then develop a disease which cuts down their numbers. This is a problem for those species but is not human caused. Our porblems are the same as the rabbits and deer - too many of us subsisting on limited natural resources. Nature keeps trying to establish a balance and we keep thwarting her.

Yes is our drive for survival and breeding but every form of life has that same drive. We think we are smart to beat Mother Nature but we aren't really that smart and this is one woman who will win in the end. One of the emphasises of this site was to promote overpopulation (along with the Humanist and Freedom From Religion Foundation).

I wonder if overpopulation per se is a real problem or inequality. I'm actually surprised that no one mentioned it yet. There's a few comments referring to human nature as the root of all evil. And I'm sure human nature inevitably produces inequality. But what can we as individuals and society do to minimize this?

@AdriaBack Overpopulation for all species is heavily controlled by nature. We are the only ones who think we can get around this, and so far have managed. But, in the end we will lose. We absolutely cannot continue using natural resources that are limited! Zero Population Growth was the first environmental group and was active for over 35 years until the pro-excessive immigration corporations got involved and paid ZPG and the Sierra Club to drop the immigration part of the equation. I was there and saw the change. The group is now known as Population Connection.

My question to those deniers is: at what level will our numbers be too many? Can the planet hold a trillion humans, or 100 billion or even 10 billion? There is an upper limit. Everything else like inequality are simply distractions.

@JackPedigo Education, a good standard of living and access to decent healthcare has been shown to limit population growth. I.e. educated couples are known to have <2 children, and this is what is predicted to happen - population growth leveling off - And with fairer world there is plenty for everyone.

4

Religion, power, greed, and the compulsion to control others.

@ScienceBiker Agreed, to a point. I have no problem telling anyone trying to control me to fuck off. Probably ANOTHER reason why I'm single.That list just keeps getting longer. LOL

3

Schools not being secular of course! Sad thing is it would take 25yrs or so before those kids were policy makers....

3

I would say it is due to our base animal nature. We are basically no different from our caveman ancestors, and therefore not far removed from apes.

If we look at chimps we see many parallels with ourselves. They are social and political, they can use primitive technology, they possess a language of sorts, they are capable of great compassion to members of their troop, but are also capable of great cruelty to members of other neighbouring troops. They also ‘play favourites’ with some members of their own troop whilst shunning, ostracising or outright bullying others.

Humans simply add greater IQ to the equation, which allows for planning and technology. We can then use this for the greatest acts of kindness, such as charities, disaster relief etc., but can also use it for the greatest acts of cruelty, such as war and genocide.

A lot of this boils down to scarcity - i.e. competition for resources, territory, mates etc. If everyone had everything they needed / wanted then a lot of the conflict should fade away, in theory at least. Prosperous nations, communities etc. where resources are in abundance tend to have less conflict than those where resources are scarce. Wealth inequality is therefore a big problem.

The other main cause is the human tendency to follow leaders, which again stems from our animal ancestry. A chimpanzee troop will follow who they perceive to be the strongest leader, and humans do likewise, only now with our IQ, nations, technology etc. those troop leaders may now be the heads of state. Being perceived as a strong leader does not always equate to being a just and decent human being, often it is the opposite, which is how we get the Hitlers, Stalins and Pol Pots of the world.

How we go about solving these problems is anybodie's guess. Anyone got any ideas?

Nomad Level 6 Mar 19, 2018
3

A lack of empathy.

3

I think it was a pesky talking snake that encouraged a naked lady to add more fruit to her diet. 🙂

Now we know...

3

The Ego. If people weren't ego maniacs we could stop wars, feed, cloth, and house everone, and solve all the world's problems.

3

Religion.

I second that!

3

Seeing a starving child as a problem someone else will take care of.

Unfortunately, sound bites and feelings of guilt tend to simplify problems. Life is not simple but complicated. I have gotten into the issue of food aid many times and been vilified. Some, who desired a real discussion actually started to view the situation in another light. Serious critical thinking is absolutely necessary to understanding the true depth of some issues.

2

Greed!
If there were only 2 men left on the planet, they would still fight over what the other one has! Maybe it's nature's way of controlling the population, although I doubt it could have predicted how fast we would develope ways of destroying ourselves!

2

Quite obviously the root of all evil is square. Quick, the square root of 37? Evil, that.

jeffy Level 7 Apr 7, 2018
2

Inequality.

Be it income, race, religion, colour, creed... If we were all to be equal, a lot of the world's problems would fade away.

2

I can be wrong, but I believe that ignorance is the main troublemaker. At least in my country.

Jagga Level 4 Mar 22, 2018
2

The root of all problems... Reality. Important to remember when they think you take too much for granted. No reality, no problems. More reality, more problems. Increase the number of variables and the possibility of complications leading to failure increase. Most success stories are tales of reducing expectations, compartmentalizing, and managed time and resources. Not gifts from above, and not extreme suffering.

2

Human greed without a doubt. The buybull said "money" as a root of all evil, but I'm sure greed covers that nicely.

2

The human condition. Our thought processes are far less aware / conscious and far sloppier than most people realize, and our emotions rule us. Even the minority of folks who understand logic, logical fallacies, and critical thinking, under-utilize it (and no, I'm not satisfied with my utilization, either).

Whatever hope I have for humanity is based on the slowly (hopefully, not TOO slowly)-improving respect for rational thought and discourse and the erosion of negative systemic influences like religion.

2

unrealistic expectations,lack of compassion/apathy.

2

There is no single root of all problems in the world. Greed =, "true belief" in total ystem ideologies, egocentrism, ethnocentrism are all among the major causes.

1

I think there are several, but become more and more prevalent are greed and tribalism

1

Failure to communicate

1

Religion.

1

Active ignorance masked at morality wrapped in selfishness...

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:34928
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.