God & Human Nature and Ethical Egoism

God & Human Nature and Ethical Egoism

Religious faith has served as a moral campus in the history of humanity. It guides human beings in choosing the right way to go. The belief that there is a superpower which keeps watching over man’s actions on earth and that he will demands accountability compels man to stick to the morals set out by the group of people that subscribe to that faith. For instance, the principle of reciprocity where one should do t others what he expects them to do to them is standard across the faiths. Those who subscribe to such faith, therefore, find themselves obliged to be morally upright as far as this principle is concerned. In America, religious leaders were among those on the forefront in advocating for equality between the blacks and the whites. This was based on the religious teachings that all are equal before God. It, therefore, influenced peoples respect for human rights (“Religion and Morality (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy),” 2019). Almost all religions are founded on love. It is on this premise that people can coexist and have respect for one another. It is the foundation of kindness and compassion; hence individuals practising this kind of faith end up adhering to the morals therein.

However, this kind of motivation a time leads to problems in society. This is mainly caused by intolerance when one group of people subscribing to a given faith fail to accommodate the religious beliefs of others.  For instance, most of the major wars experienced in the world are normally connected to religious beliefs. When individuals believe in the teachings of a certain religion and consider any contrary teachings as opposition to their supreme being, they end up involving violence to defend their religion. They fail to recognize that other people have a right to believe in other faiths and should be given the freedom to exercise it. Some also as they are motivated to do what is right, they become adamant and refuse to embrace anything new as they consider it foreign to their faith. For example, there are people who are embracing their beliefs that all things are possible to those who believe, shun medication when they are sick and therefore suffer sickness. They believe that that it goes against the original plan of their God. They, therefore, go to the extent of violating the rights of those they have authority over like children, by denying them the right to seek medical attention when they are sick (“Religion and Morality (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy),” 2019).

Agriculture is the main source of food for most people all over the world. It has been in practice since time immemorial both in developed and the underdeveloped countries though not in the same way and magnitude. The developed countries are much more advanced technologically, and therefore they are able to produce crops and food of very high quality compared to what is produced in the developing countries. The unfortunate thing is that advancement in technology comes with a lot of variations in the type of food produced, especially due to the genetic modification which has been applied for years now (Paarlberg, 2013). This has seen some farm produce which is unsuitable for human consumption being produced at very low cost. People out of greed for money use a lot of chemicals fasten the growth of the crops and increase yields. This egocentric behaviour has ended up in a lot of dietary diseases among the people, especially in developed countries. People chose to shelf their morals and put the lives of others at risk.

The large-scale farmers in developed countries always want to serve their interests first. With the free trade policies in place in these developing countries, they flood their markets with food products from their countries which they have produced so cheaply due to the technological advantage they possess (Paarlberg, 2013). The produce from the local farmers cannot compete price-wise with those from the developed countries. The locals end up selling their produce at other food substances at a loss which kicks them out of the market. This, in turn, increases the rate of poverty in these countries. The developed countries do this in total disregard of the impact their actions have on the locals. Their driving force has always been to serve self-interests.

Their others also that choose to carry out large scale farming in the developing countries where take advantage of the high levels of unemployment. In so doing, they exploit the workers in these farms by paying them very low wages (Zimdahl, 2012). This translates to very high profits on their side due to the reduced cost of production. In some other cases, they supply seeds from the developed countries to the farmers in the developing countries. Yet, the quality of these seeds is lower than what is being supplied to the farmers in the developed countries or even on the farms of these foreigners farming in the developing countries. This leads to reduced yields and once again, unfair competition in the market.

In all these activities that go on in agriculture, it is always important to understand that farming has been dominated by individuals and organizations out to serve personal interests. The driving mission is no longer about proving food for millions all over the world who go without food. Exploitation and unfair competition have become the face of agriculture. Egocentric approach to agriculture has seen the production of substandard farm produce. Instead of being a source of relief to the suffering people, failure to uphold morals has caused it to be part of the agents that are causing all these problems to the world. All this moral degradation can be traced to the drastic change in people’s belief systems where most people have abandoned their religious beliefs that teaches on the importance of people upholding these values.

References

Paarlberg, R. L. (2013). Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Religion and Morality (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (2019, August 8). Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/

Zimdahl, R. L. (2012). Agriculture’s Ethical Horizon. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.