Moral Sentiments xx Love

 God is love. That is my belief. Throughout the history of man, religion of one sort or another has played a major role in establishing the taboos, morays and civility of cultures as it does so today. Some genomic correlations show a DNA sequence associated with cooperative behavior. From an evolutionary perspective one might imagine a survival benefit from cooperative behavior. Other behaviors too must have contributed to the success or failure of a group, a state or a culture. Was this cooperative gene the love gene? Probably not but close. After all what is love but the ultimate expression of cooperation, and surely we have a monogamy sequence nearby, variably expressed, evident throughout the animal kingdom. 

The success or failure of each succeeding culture depended so much on cooperation that there must have been a spontaneous voice to that need, first as the tribal shaman, then as an organized religion. According to Toynbee, civilizations rise, meet their potential then collapse due to some internal fatal flaw. The rejection of religion and the cooperation imperative may be one such fatal flaw. 

Western Civilization’s present pandemic of hate, selfishness and agnosticism may be a warning sign. Behavior wise, we are circulating the drain.