Is war a part of human nature?

Answer 1

The desire for war is generally caused by man's ego, which is part of the physical man, as opposed to the spiritual man. Physical man is another way of describing man's "human nature."

Man naturally has great tendencies to do according to his desires, and has other people act in accordance to his desires, cultures, and philosophies. As a civilization of a particular culture grows, it is a part of that civilization's nature to dominate the choices of surrounding peoples, in an attempt to bring these peoples into under one great rule, or should I say comfort zone.

If need be, man will wage war to forcibly bring others to the awareness of a more "enlightened" way of living.

The only way to truly have peace is for man to ultimately strengthen his spiritual side. When living with true virtue, man is able to have patience, understanding, tolerance, love, forgiveness, gentleness, and goodness, even in the face of fear, intolerance, hate, and anger.

Self-defense is necessary, but more times than not, war is waged by men who fight against the free agency of others, and men who will the dominance and manipulation of others. This stems greatly from pride and selfishness, but it can come from any attitude that is against the spirit of true virtues, those virtues which are of GOD.

AnswerMany claim that it is. Two "clans" living in neighboring valleys were fine and co-existed so long as neither grew to be too large. Once a clan outgrew the resources of it's valley, it needed to find additional resources. If the hunt was too successful, there would be nothing for next year. If the berry gathering was too successful or the harvest was too small, the clan had trouble existing. That was when the clan sent some of it's more aggressive members to the next valley to take the resources of their neighbors. It was a survival technique, and the clan that was successful in the battle was the clan that survived the next winter.

Aggression is a basic part of human nature. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Civilization is the process of providing rules that help us acknowledge that others have the right to exist and that our existence does not presume that they must be destroyed. Part of the justification for destroying the neighboring clan was the perception that they were "different". Today, we try to embrace the differences. Cultural diversity can be a good thing provided that the OTHER culture is not one that is attempting to take over and force change.

Much of the problem with radical Islam is that they are attempting to force the world to their beliefs rather than accept a culturally diverse world. They are still quite close to their aggressive ancestors and believe that they must destroy all non-believers in the name of Islam.

AnswerAggression and violence are basic human traits. Indeed, they are arguably traits that have allowed the human species to thrive. Without some aggressive tendencies, humans would have been easy pray to any predator.

However, war requires social groups to work together-- it is not an act of one person, who is angry or violent. Hence the argument that war is inherent in human nature is much more difficult to make than the claim that violence and aggression exists in humans.

War certainly is not a biological trait but rather a socially formed concept of how to solve conflicts as the existence of several "peaceful" societies around the world proves. Most of these non-warring societies have also found interesting ways to deal with personal aggression. Unfortunately, most Western societies are warring, which means that interest in these peaceful societies has been lacking (and thus study).