Selfishness

I wrote an essay on evolution and creationism.
It was to only be 3 pages.
I got a bit overzealous and wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.

Luckily I it was easily divided into background information and the actual essay.
Here is the beginning of the essay:

The most basic awareness of an organism is oneself. Whatever consciousness there may be present in an organism tells it that its purpose is to perpetuate and afford itself with any means necessary for survival. The only thing that matters in life is the organism and potential offspring. Observing nature will not illustrate otherwise: mother bears will become enraged on behalf of her cubs at the first sign of potential predators, hierarchies based on dominance are established to allot the consumption of wolf kills, and some species of ants with enslave other species of ants. Every successful species and individual has realized they must act selfishly to become successful in its particular niche.

However, what if it is possible to see outside this scope of self-perpetuation? The next step beyond this recognition might be realization and understanding of one’s environment and interactions within it. As this comprehension becomes further solidified, one might start to recognize some constants within nature and question others that are not so obvious. Probably the most vexing of all basic questions is the beginnings of life. Humankind has unarguably reached this stage sometime in the distant past. Yet unequipped with the proper tools and knowledge to better understand their origin, they could only invent something feasibly within their grasp—the notion that something created us and everything we see. This is the advent of religion.

Religion by default was then the only useable method to explain the universe and, understandably, religion also carried with it a dual explanation. It not only explains life’s origins, but also cleverly-intertwines ideologies dealing with the purpose of life. Generally with any religion (although the later focus will be based more on Christianity), it is stated that life requires of one to follows a moral guideline which will eventually lead to an afterlife of bliss if one follows the dictated lifestyle correctly.

This ideology builds on the aforementioned perception of the necessity for selfish behavior to succeed in life. People, without resistance, will acceptingly live according to life’s “purpose” which coincidentally follows their original life goal of living well in perpetuation. Whether people believe themselves to be guided by unseen forces or left to fate, the comforting draw of living by religious standards ingeniously makes a selfish lifestyle seem less so because of its authoritative mandate.

Christianity is one of the many religions that purport a sought-after afterlife. During the Dark Ages in Europe, Christianity had a powerful grip on European societies. Without thought, most people blissfully trudged through oppression and poverty in the anticipation of a better postmortem life. However, by the end of this era came curious minds that were again open to studying nature. In the process of studying nature evidence surfaced that went against the long-standing church. Initially astronomers, followed by physicists and geologists started airing questions aimed at Christianity’s immutable doctrine.

Christianity maintained its omniscient stance. Imprisoning or killing opposition it managed to keep a stranglehold on most laypeople through to the industrial revolution. In the meantime, scientific progress continued and accumulated knowledge. . . .