Your Ticket to Heaven

We can infer some guidelines for proper behavior. Proper behaviors are those behaviors derived from the evolutionary requirement for success: survive.

To survive, a primary element for success is to be able to see through the camouflage. That is to see past the adaptations of colors to match environments. Another primary element for success is modification of behavior. The last primary element for success is see the real world as it is without wishful thinking. To fail this vision test is to die.

Which also means that we must personally experience our environment and that we had better continue to learn all the time as our environment changes. We had better continue to learn as our predators continue to practice their skills, learn, and get better.

For the most part of Man’s evolution, he was not the biggest, baddest SOB around, he was someone else’s prospective meal on a regular basis. A good teacher is a constant irritant, making you pay attention even when you don't want to do so. To be constantly hunted for dinner has got to be irritating at best, and frequently terror inducing.

Predators are the driving force that keeps the prey species healthy. Predators force the prey to learn adaptive behaviors. We humans most likely owe a tremendous debt for our intelligence to the great cats.

Predators first take the old, sick, weak, unlucky, stupid, inattentive, slow and injured, and the unattended young, if they can get them. Today our predators are our fellow humans, and your survival skills are that much more important.

What do we have so far for our inference list of proper behaviors? (1) We are expected to see the world as it is without wishful thinking.

(2) We are expected to be honest with ourselves. If you can’t honestly assess your ability to run fast enough to just escape the lion’s claws, you are likely to make a fatal mistake. You just got an unwelcome invitation to dinner where you will definitely be involved.

(3) We are expected to experience life. Smell the flowers, taste the ripe fruit, enjoy the warm sunshine, shiver in the rain, learn to shelter ourselves from the wind and cold, and copulate frequently with joy.

(4) We are expected to have courage. You do have to be bold enough to go after food and water and other amenities of life. You also have to be smart enough to know when it is safe to do so. There are bold pilots. There are old pilots. There are few old, bold pilots. Oldness and boldness do not often mix. Courage does not mean stupidity.

(5) We are expected to learn all of our lives. Changing circumstances forces us to continue to learn, or die early.

(6) We are expected to be cautious and think before we leap.

(7) We are expected to be observant and courageous, to know when the lions are hungry and when they’ve just binged on slow zebra.

(8) We are expected to play with and have fun with the members of our group. There are limits on our play. Poking a big kitty in the ass with a sharp stick is not a survival behavior. Dropping rotten fruit on her head might be safer. Throwing rotten fruit at a friend is a lot safer still, and can even be fun.

(9) We are expected to get along with the members of our group and care and share with them. A favor given now may be returned later.

(10) We are expected to make and use tools to modify our environment. Other animals do. Chimps use a stick stripped of leaves to collect termites and ants to eat. Sea otters use hammer stones. Elephants can be seen to dig for water in the beds of dry rivers. Many animals scrape at salt and mineral licks to expose new material to ingest. That behavior could be observed and copied.

It all just comes naturally.

Article Source: http://www.religionarticlelibrary.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace completed an MA and taught in the public schools for 28 years. He recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, the layers of money sucking priesthood, and their departures from the fundamental ideas and messages of Religion. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will outrage everyone. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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