Natural Causes

The healthiest reaction to our lack of free will is compassion for all

2008-08-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is my thesis, my brand, favorite meme, etc. The purpose of this blog is to persuade others, as I am persuaded, that not only is it true, it is the most important bit of information humanity could acquire to help improve its present condition. We are always doing what we must, the best we can, so there is no justification for retribution or contempt, and plenty of justification for compassion, kindness and understanding. We must still bear the consequences of our actions, but to the extent individuals and society are healthy, the consequences we must face, and those we must administer to others, will be grounded in compassion.

Rather than add excessively to the already extensive writing on this topic, I've decided to serve mainly as a guide to the best presentations of this thesis already out there. You can download from my web page Natural Causes.net a .pdf of "Fully Caused: The benefits of a naturalistic understanding of human behavior", a document which contains dozens of quotes by thinkers throughout history, along with my comments. NaturalCauses.net also points you to relevant websites, including Tom Clark's Center for Naturalism, The Beingists, Dr. Kristin Neff's site on self-compassion and others.

Please come back periodically; I hope to continue to develop my role as a guide to the best of what's out there, as well as add some small pieces of verbiage when I deem it necessary.

Compassionate Naturalism The Video

2008-07-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

Compassionate Naturalism The Text

2008-06-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Everyone is Natural.

Naturalism is the position that there is a single nature world, as understood by science. There's no convincing evidence for god, souls, afterlife, etc., so it doesn't make sense to include such things in our worldview.

Everyone is as they must be, does as they must do, changes as they must change, according to the laws of nature.

Without a supernatural realm, there's no plausible explanation for how humans could be other than they are, do other than they do, or change in ways other than the ways they change. The explanation for our being, doing and changing is cause and effect, the laws of nature. Randomness doesn't matter: we have no control whatsoever over it, so it doesn't get us free will.

The healthiest response to these facts is compassion for all, including yourself.

No one has freely chosen to be what they are. No one has ever freely chosen to harm anyone. We are the result of multiple and complex determinants interacting with each other to produce our behavior. We are all ultimately innocent. When an innocent person suffers, the healthy response is compassion. So, if everyone, including yourself, is innocent all the time, then everyone merits compassion all the time.

As animals, our ideal is health and happiness. We are social animals; we try to balance the needs of individuals with the needs of the group. In order to attain the most health for the most people, we reinforce those who contribute to our welfare and the welfare of others. We try to keep dangerous people from causing harm to us or to others. As individuals and as a group, we try to act in ways which promote positive behavior and discourage negative behavior. So, though we recognize that we are fully caused, we're still motivated to behave ethically and to get others to do the same. Since we understand that all behavior is fully caused, we can study it and have some hope of influencing behavior for the better.