Primal instincts still prominent part of human life?

[Selkie]

This isn't a very complex concept, so I'll just say it basic...

They say all species have one sole purpose in life, to survive, and in that time reproduce.

Well we as humans have evolved a huge amount passed other species, obviously. So do you think that we are becoming more complex than that simple survival concept? Or is all the talk of deeper thought and emotion just bullcrap and deep down inside everyone just cares about their own survival?

I really think that we are evolving to that point where our lives actually gain some meaning. So we can live to appreciate beautiful things, and we would give up something to help another, maybe even our own life. Because there are some truly selfless people in the world.

What do you think?

[Houdini]

We indulge our basic instincts because it's easier than reaching for transcendence. There is a void within all of us, a big gaping hole that can only be filled with love, creativity, and enlightenment. However, we are afraid of these things, and so we try to plug up the hole by indulging our basic instincts. We throw so may things down that chasm: food, sex, drugs, money, power, domination, submission, fear, anxiety, work... We can temporarily forget about the hole, but ultimately these indulgences just make it so much deeper and wider.

You think we're making progress? I admire your optimism. I'm not so sure, myself. I see that some people are opening up and letting their hearts out into the open, but I see so many more people consumed by fear, lust, and depression. I look in their eyes and see nothing - no flicker of brightness or hope, no self-awareness, no desire to learn, simply Nothing, stretching far beyond the mind's ability to comprehend.

History repeats itself. You think we're the first to reach any kind of enlightenment? We're not the first to seek meaning amidst the chaos - what of the Egyptians before us, or the ancient Greeks? No, it seems we're about due for another dark age. I certainly hope not, and I'm sure you do too. Keep your fingers crossed.

[guff]

i mauled a gazelle today

[Houdini]

i mauled a gazelle today

Peyote makes you imagine the darndest things.

[sans culottes]

Humanity has evolved. Physically, we're not big and strong with the caveman nor being considered tall at five feet like our ancestors. Mentally, we've developed our brains and our IQ has increased over time. But emotionally, we aren't too much different - and in some mental aspects, too.

We do many primal things in modern ways. Humanity constantly struggles between being anarchic savages without limits and being well behaved with limits that we see no fun in.

Also see: Lord of the Flies.

[Hippopo]

When you say "evolve" what do you mean?  Do you mean our actual species compared to other animals.. Or do you mean people now compared to people in the ancient times?  Both maybe?

It sounds like you are suggesting that humans continue to evolve, and as a result, we are losing our instinct to always promote the self.  True?

[Virgule punctuation mark]

Base instincts exist in all life, and when needed will usually return to insure survival. Though Humans, like animals, can eventually be trained to seek alternatives to instinct, if such ways are successful to the individual, the difference is though, we have come to a point where we are able to train ourselves to ignore our old ways through our complex society.

To curb primal instinct seems essential for modern society, therefor, much is shunned as taboo, The desire to expand population through as many mates as possible is reclassified as lustful polygamy to avoid overpopulation, Greed and envy are classic means of self preservation in hard times, but in modern days causes strife through crime and war, obesity is caused by the urge to overeat in preparation for famine, which in these times doesn't come for many in the world, resulting in a shorter lifespan rather than larger.

So while such  instincts may exist for our own insurance, humans need to develop new instincts more reliant on society, if we chose to coexist with each other, rather than living for ourselves, which perhaps may also be acceptable.

[FAMY2]

obesity is caused by the urge to overeat in preparation for famine

I think it is more trying to fill the empty void Houdini was talking about.  Food has always been associated with a feeling of being satisfied and content.

[thezerofire]

the amount of extramarital sex attests to that.

[Garahe]

I think the want to masturbate is part of instinct. It is clearly still part of human life.