The World Is Made of Goodness, Passion, and Ignorance: Human Nature, the Divisions of Civilization, and the Difficult Search for Fraternity
The World Is Made of Goodness, Passion, and Ignorance: Human Nature, the Divisions of Civilization, and the Difficult Search for Fraternity
By R.V. Garcia — RV Garcia Thesis
Introduction: A Humanity Divided Between Goodness, Desire, and Ignorance
There is a deeply troubling contradiction in human history. Our species has developed extraordinary knowledge, built civilizations, produced philosophies, religions, moral systems, scientific institutions, and artistic achievements of remarkable complexity. Yet we continue to live with wars, persecution, intolerance, exploitation, violence, and countless forms of human suffering.
For thousands of years, different civilizations have attempted to understand human nature. Philosophers, religious thinkers, observers of the natural world, and scholars of consciousness have sought to identify the forces that influence our decisions, behaviors, and relationships with others.
Among these attempts, one particularly interesting formulation appears in the philosophical and religious traditions of India: the concept of the three gunas, presented in Vedic literature as three fundamental qualities or modes of material nature: sattva, rajas, and tamas, traditionally associated with goodness, passion, and ignorance.
This classification offers a way to reflect on the different conditions that may influence consciousness and the behavior of living beings.
The question we intend to investigate is whether philosophical, ethical, and symbolic parallels can be identified between this concept and the teachings of other religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, as well as the mythologies of different civilizations.
We do not intend to claim that all these traditions present exactly the same doctrine. Such an assertion would be historically inaccurate. However, we can investigate a shared concern: the difficulty human beings face in balancing their desires, controlling their impulses, and developing behaviors grounded in compassion, justice, and fraternity.
Our investigation must also extend beyond religion. We need to examine the history of warfare, competition over resources, the psychological mechanisms of fear, social rivalry, and the material conditions that influence human behavior.
Perhaps one of the most important questions we can ask is this:
What happens to human consciousness when fear, ambition, resentment, and ignorance begin to occupy the space that should be reserved for goodness?
1. Vedic Literature and the Three Fundamental Qualities of Nature: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas
Vedic literature presents a particularly interesting philosophical classification for understanding the different qualities of nature and their manifestations in human consciousness.
These are the three gunas:
- Sattva: goodness, balance, clarity, knowledge, and harmony.
- Rajas: passion, desire, movement, ambition, activity, and attachment.
- Tamas: ignorance, darkness, inertia, negligence, and confusion.
This concept is developed in considerable detail in Chapter 14 of the Bhagavad-Gita, traditionally titled The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas.
Verse 5 introduces the three modes of material nature. The following verses examine their different manifestations.
Verse 6 associates sattva with purity, illumination, and knowledge. Verse 7 presents rajas as a mode associated with desire, passion, and attachment to activity. Verse 8 connects tamas with ignorance, negligence, and darkness.
The chapter also makes an important observation: these three qualities should not necessarily be understood as permanent and unchanging categories of people. They can manifest in different ways and with varying degrees of intensity.
The Srimad Bhagavatam also develops this concept in several passages, including discussions of the three gunas in its Seventh Canto.
What makes this classification particularly interesting for our investigation is the possibility of using it as an interpretive framework for examining human behavior.
A person may demonstrate kindness under certain circumstances and, under others, act under the influence of pride, ambition, fear, or ignorance.
We do not need to interpret this as an absolute division between good and bad people. Human behavior is far more complex.
Passion: A Force That Can Build or Destroy
It is important to clarify that rajas does not necessarily represent a negative characteristic.
Passion can inspire creativity, scientific discovery, the development of civilizations, artistic expression, and the pursuit of knowledge.
Ambition can also motivate individuals to develop extraordinary abilities and make positive contributions to humanity.
However, when passion becomes uncontrolled desire, a permanent need for superiority, possessiveness, or an unlimited pursuit of power, it can produce destructive consequences.
The desire for prosperity can become exploitation.
The desire for recognition can become vanity.
The desire for protection can become aggression driven by fear.
The desire to win can become an inability to accept the existence of other people with different rights, opinions, and needs.
In this process, passion ceases to be a constructive force and begins to nourish behaviors that can bring an individual closer to ignorance.
This relationship deserves our attention: it is not the desire to accomplish something that necessarily produces suffering, but rather the loss of discernment when one's desires take control.
Ignorance, in this context, does not simply mean a lack of formal education or scientific knowledge. Even an intellectually educated person can display profoundly ignorant behavior when unable to recognize the consequences of their actions.
Technical knowledge does not guarantee moral wisdom.
2. Goodness in the World's Major Religious Traditions
If we examine the principal religious traditions, we find different formulations concerning goodness, compassion, justice, mercy, and responsibility toward other human beings.
Although their cosmologies and theological conceptions differ, there is a recurring set of ethical concerns worth comparing.
2.1. Judaism: Justice, Responsibility, and Love of Neighbor
In Jewish tradition, we find a fundamental ethical principle in Leviticus 19:18:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
This teaching appears within a broader collection of instructions concerning justice, communal responsibility, and proper conduct toward others.
Another important reference appears in Micah 6:8, which emphasizes acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
We can identify three fundamental elements:
- Justice in human relationships.
- Mercy toward those experiencing hardship.
- Humility and recognition of our own limitations.
Goodness, therefore, is not merely a pleasant feeling. It must be expressed through concrete actions.
A person may claim to follow religious principles, but if that individual uses their position to humiliate, exploit, or harm others, there is a contradiction between their words and their conduct.
This question deserves attention in every religious tradition.
2.2. Christianity: Love, Mercy, and Fraternity
In Christianity, goodness occupies a central position in the teachings attributed to Jesus.
In Matthew 22:37–40, we find the formulation of the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 5:9 offers another significant passage:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
The Sermon on the Mount also presents teachings concerning mercy, forgiveness, humility, and moral responsibility.
One of the most interesting aspects of Christianity is its call to move beyond the logic of reciprocity.
Loving only those who love us is not the greatest moral challenge. The real challenge is preserving our humanity in the presence of those with whom we disagree.
This does not mean accepting injustice or abandoning the defense of our own rights.
It means understanding that the existence of conflict does not have to eliminate our ability to recognize the dignity of others.
Christian fraternity, when understood in its ethical dimension, requires more than declarations of faith: it requires action.
2.3. Islam: Mercy, Justice, and Responsibility
Islam also offers important principles concerning mercy and justice.
The Quran, in Surah 16:90, presents guidance concerning justice, excellence in conduct, and generosity toward others, while condemning morally reprehensible behavior.
In Surah 5:32, we find a passage frequently associated with the preservation of human life and the seriousness of unjustly taking another person's life.
The historical and textual context of this passage must be considered carefully, but its presence demonstrates the importance attributed to human life and moral responsibility.
Mercy occupies a particularly significant place in Islamic tradition.
The understanding that human beings should act justly, avoid oppression, and recognize their responsibilities before God constitutes an important element of its ethical dimension.
As in the other traditions examined here, there is a distinction between professing a religion and actually practicing the values it teaches.
2.4. Buddhism: Compassion, Nonviolence, and Mastery of the Mind
Buddhism offers another particularly interesting perspective for our investigation.
Rather than focusing on the relationship between human beings and a creator God, its traditions examine suffering, desire, attachment, ignorance, and the transformation of consciousness in considerable depth.
In the Dhammapada, verse 5, we find a teaching traditionally translated as:
Hatred is never ended by hatred; by love, hatred is ended. This is an eternal law.
This statement presents a fundamental reflection on the perpetuation of violence.
When someone continually responds to aggression with further aggression, they may contribute to an endless cycle of resentment.
Buddhism also develops the practices of metta, commonly translated as loving-kindness, and karuna, meaning compassion.
These practices seek to cultivate a mental disposition oriented toward the well-being of other beings.
There is an interesting philosophical connection here with the Vedic concept of sattva: both offer paths for reflecting on mental clarity, balance, and the reduction of forces that contribute to suffering.
They are not identical concepts, but they provide valuable material for comparative study.
2.5. A Common Question Across Religions
When we examine these traditions, we encounter a recurring question:
Why do human beings, even when familiar with teachings about justice, mercy, compassion, and fraternity, continue to reproduce behaviors that contradict those principles?
The existence of moral teachings does not mean they are automatically incorporated into human personality.
Knowing a rule does not guarantee that it will be followed.
Religion can provide instruments for inner transformation, but it can also be distorted when it becomes an instrument of power, exclusion, intolerance, or domination.
The question, therefore, is not simply how many religions exist, but to what extent their ethical principles can effectively transform the behavior of their followers.
3. Goodness in Mythology: Symbols of Harmony and Destruction
Mythologies also provide important material for understanding how different civilizations interpreted human nature.
They should not be treated merely as fictional narratives. They constitute symbolic records of the social, cosmological, political, and moral concerns of different peoples.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, we find Ma'at, a principle associated with truth, justice, order, and cosmic balance.
The preservation of Ma'at represented a fundamental condition for the organization of the world and society.
Its symbolic opposition was associated with chaos and disorder.
In Greek mythology, we find another interesting perspective.
Hybris, commonly interpreted as arrogance or excessive pride, represents the violation of limits, particularly when individuals allow pride and overconfidence to dominate their judgment.
Numerous Greek narratives portray characters whose ambition and inability to recognize their limitations ultimately lead to their destruction.
We also find xenia, the principle of hospitality, which played an important role in relationships between hosts and visitors.
In Hindu traditions, alongside the three gunas, we find narratives contrasting different moral dispositions, including generosity, self-control, pride, violence, and attachment.
Across different mythological traditions, we repeatedly encounter narratives concerning:
- The conflict between order and chaos.
- The opposition between wisdom and ignorance.
- The struggle between generosity and selfishness.
- The importance of hospitality.
- The dangers of arrogance and uncontrolled ambition.
- The need for balance between seemingly opposing forces.
These elements demonstrate that concern for human conduct does not belong exclusively to one religion or civilization.
It is a recurring question throughout the cultural history of our species.
4. Human Warfare: Territory, Religion, Resources, and the Struggle for Power
There is an observation found in works examining secret societies and power structures, including literature that seeks to interpret historical events through struggles between groups and institutions: a significant proportion of human conflicts are connected to disputes over territory, resources, food, influence, and religion.
This is an interesting proposition, although it requires further expansion.
We cannot claim that absolutely every war has occurred for the same reasons. Each conflict has its own historical circumstances, frequently involving several simultaneous motivations.
Nevertheless, we can identify recurring factors.
Major Factors Associated With Wars and Historical Conflicts
1. Territory
Disputes over borders, agricultural land, strategic regions, trade routes, and geographic positions constitute one of the historical sources of conflict.
2. Natural Resources
Water, oil, minerals, precious metals, timber, and other resources can represent important economic and strategic interests.
3. Food and Survival
The availability of productive land, agricultural resources, and reliable food supplies can influence disputes between communities and states.
4. Religion
Religious differences, persecution, disputes over spiritual authority, and the political exploitation of faith have played roles in numerous conflicts.
It is important to recognize that not every war involving populations of different religions necessarily has a religious motivation. Political and territorial interests are frequently involved as well.
5. Power and Geopolitical Influence
Territorial expansion, regional hegemony, control over other states, and the establishment of spheres of influence are important historical factors.
6. Ideology and Nationalism
Political doctrines, state-building projects, extreme nationalism, and expansionist movements can also produce conflicts.
7. Security and Fear of External Threats
States may enter conflicts because they interpret the growing strength of other countries as a threat to their own survival.
This mechanism is particularly interesting: a measure considered defensive by one government may be interpreted as offensive by another.
8. Prestige, Pride, and the Ambitions of Leaders
The pursuit of recognition, military glory, personal power, and the preservation of political regimes can also contribute to disastrous decisions.
9. Revenge and Historical Resentment
Memories of defeat, humiliation, persecution, and previous injustices can fuel new cycles of violence.
10. Economic and Commercial Control
Maritime routes, consumer markets, financial systems, infrastructure, and commercial advantages also participate in the dynamics of conflict.
11. Internal Disputes and the Preservation of Political Power
Political leaders may use external threats, nationalism, and conflict to strengthen their domestic positions.
12. Miscalculations and Diplomatic Failures
Incorrect information, mistaken interpretations of other governments' intentions, and hasty decisions can contribute to escalating tensions.
These factors do not necessarily operate independently.
Political scientist Azar Gat, in his 2009 article So Why Do People Fight? Evolutionary Theory and the Causes of War, published in the European Journal of International Relations, examines different motivations associated with conflict, including competition for resources, the pursuit of dominance, security, identity, and ideas.
His work is particularly relevant because it demonstrates that explaining warfare requires consideration of multiple dimensions of human behavior.
International relations scholar Jack S. Levy also examined the diversity of the causes of war in his 1998 study The Causes of War and the Conditions of Peace.
The conclusion we can draw is that organized violence does not have a single origin.
However, there is a philosophical question that goes beyond economic and political explanations: why do human beings so frequently allow private interests to take precedence over the lives of other people?
5. Fear of the Future and the Psychological Mechanisms That Undermine Goodness
We must recognize that human behavior is not determined exclusively by moral convictions.
Material conditions, social events, and psychological mechanisms exert significant influence on our decisions.
A person who constantly lives under threat may develop defensive, distrustful, and aggressive behaviors.
This does not mean that fear justifies violence, but it helps us understand some of the conditions that may contribute to its emergence.
Among the factors worth investigating, we can identify:
1. Fear of Poverty: The possibility of losing the basic means of survival can create insecurity and excessively competitive behavior.
2. Fear of Hunger: When individuals believe they may be left without food, they can develop a constant concern for their own survival.
3. Fear of Unemployment: Professional and economic instability can generate anxiety, resentment, and uncertainty about the future.
4. Fear of Losing Social Status: The need to preserve status, recognition, and prestige can fuel rivalries.
5. Fear of Violence: Living under constant threat can produce distrust and defensive behavior.
6. Fear of External Threats: International conflicts, political instability, and collective insecurity can intensify hostility.
7. Permanent Competition: The perception that we must defeat other people to achieve a decent standard of living can weaken solidarity.
8. Resentment and Humiliation: Experiences of rejection, discrimination, and injustice can produce psychological suffering and fuel aggressive behavior.
9. Misinformation: False information and distorted interpretations can create imaginary enemies and encourage conflict.
10. Social Isolation: The absence of meaningful human connections and community bonds can make the development of empathy more difficult.
11. Political and Religious Polarization: When people begin interpreting every disagreement as a threat to their own identity, dialogue becomes increasingly difficult.
12. Excessive Consumption and Social Comparison: Constant exposure to images of wealth, success, and recognition can encourage feelings of inadequacy, envy, and dissatisfaction.
13. Trauma and Experiences of Violence: Traumatic events can influence how individuals interpret threats and establish relationships with others.
14. Lack of Hope for the Future: When a society loses confidence in the possibility of improving its living conditions, fear and resentment may gain ground.
These factors do not automatically turn someone into an aggressive person. Individual, social, and cultural differences remain important.
Nevertheless, they help us understand why building a more fraternal society also requires decent living conditions.
We cannot demand permanent serenity from populations subjected to hunger, violence, exploitation, and insecurity while ignoring the conditions that produce these problems.
Goodness must be cultivated individually, but it also depends on social environments in which human dignity can be protected.
6. The Algorithm of Hate and the Transformation of Human Relationships
There is another contemporary phenomenon that deserves attention: the way digital platforms influence the circulation of information and social relationships.
We can use the expression algorithm of hate to describe a phenomenon in which aggressive, provocative, humiliating, and polarizing content receives disproportionate attention.
It is important to clarify that algorithms do not necessarily possess a conscious intention to promote hatred.
However, recommendation systems that prioritize certain engagement metrics may favor the circulation of emotionally intense content.
An aggressive argument can generate thousands of comments.
A provocation can reach an enormous audience.
An offensive statement can circulate much faster than a thoughtful reflection.
In this environment, outrage frequently becomes a form of entertainment.
Individuals begin to feel that they must choose a side, attack their opponents, and defend their identities against people who hold different opinions.
The consequence may be a weakening of our ability to listen, reflect, and recognize legitimate aspects of opposing viewpoints.
Humanity has always lived with disputes and rivalries. However, contemporary technologies have changed the speed and scale at which certain behaviors can be amplified.
We must ask ourselves:
Are we using technology to expand our knowledge and our ability to understand one another, or are we allowing it to intensify our rivalries?
Technology does not independently determine human behavior. It is developed, managed, and used by people and institutions.
For that reason, responsibility must also remain human.
7. Does Goodness Exist Only Among Human Beings? Observations of Other Species on Earth
Our investigation can go even further when we observe other species that share this planet with us.
It is worth asking whether certain behaviors associated with cooperation, protection, and assistance also appear in other animals.
Scientific research has documented numerous examples of cooperation, parental care, reciprocity, and complex social behavior among different species.
Among elephants, we find collective care and the protection of younger individuals.
Among primates, particularly chimpanzees and bonobos, researchers have documented different forms of cooperation, social bonding, reconciliation, and assistance.
Among wolves, social organization involves cooperation in activities such as movement, defense, and raising offspring.
Dolphins display complex social behaviors, including cooperation and assistance between individuals.
We also find remarkable examples of collective organization among ants, bees, and other social insects.
These behaviors should not automatically be classified as goodness in the same moral sense used by human beings.
An animal protecting its offspring is not necessarily engaging in ethical reflection comparable to that of a human being who consciously decides to help a stranger.
We must distinguish cooperative behavior, empathy, biological altruism, and conscious morality.
Nevertheless, these observations demonstrate that competition is not the only force organizing life.
Cooperation also plays a fundamental role in the survival of numerous species.
This raises an interesting question: if nature presents so many strategies based on cooperation, why does our species, equipped with language, historical knowledge, and the capacity for moral reflection, encounter so many difficulties in organizing societies in a more fraternal way?
This question should not be used to idealize nature, since predation, competition, and violence are also part of the natural world.
What it allows us to observe is that life presents different survival strategies, and cooperation is one of them.
8. What Does It Really Mean to Be a Good Person?
We have arrived at one of the central questions of this investigation.
What is goodness, really?
Does being good mean agreeing with everyone?
Does it mean accepting every kind of behavior?
Does it mean never expressing indignation?
Certainly not.
Goodness should not be confused with submission, naivety, or an inability to think critically.
A good person can disagree, establish boundaries, expose injustice, and defend their rights.
The difference lies in how these abilities are exercised.
Goodness can be understood as a conscious willingness to recognize the dignity of other beings, avoid unnecessary suffering, act justly, and refuse to turn private interests into excuses for harming others.
We can identify several concrete expressions of goodness:
- Respecting people regardless of their social position.
- Never humiliating someone because of their economic or intellectual circumstances.
- Never exploiting another person's vulnerability.
- Acknowledging one's own mistakes.
- Developing the ability to listen.
- Avoiding premature judgments.
- Refusing to turn disagreements into hostility.
- Offering help whenever possible.
- Defending justice without abandoning our humanity.
- Respecting other forms of life.
- Recognizing that no one possesses absolute knowledge.
- Avoiding the use of religion, politics, or ideology as justifications for dehumanizing others.
Goodness also requires a quality that is frequently overlooked: self-control.
It is not difficult to be kind when everything happens according to our expectations.
The real practice of goodness begins when we are challenged, when we encounter injustice, when we meet people with different opinions, or when we must control impulses that could cause suffering.
In this sense, we can establish a dialogue between Stoic philosophy, Buddhist literature, and the Vedic concept of sattva.
Although these traditions are distinct, they offer reflections on the importance of mastering our impulses, achieving mental clarity, and transforming the way we respond to circumstances.
Goodness is not merely an emotion.
It is also a practice.
9. Competition and Fraternity: Must We Necessarily Live in Conflict?
Competition has different manifestations.
Under certain circumstances, it can encourage development, creativity, personal growth, and the improvement of human abilities.
The problem emerges when competition ceases to be a means of development and becomes the foundation of all human relationships.
When someone believes they must diminish another person to achieve recognition, we are witnessing a distortion.
When a society considers it normal for individuals to be treated as disposable instruments, there is an ethical problem.
When the wealth of some systematically depends on the exploitation of others, we must question the foundations of those relationships.
Fraternity does not require everyone to have the same ideas, abilities, or living conditions.
It requires recognizing that differences do not eliminate human dignity.
A society can contain different religions, cultures, political opinions, and economic systems without turning those differences into permanent sources of hostility.
The true development of a civilization should not be measured exclusively by its economic, military, or technological power.
We must also consider its ability to protect life, reduce suffering, provide opportunities, and preserve dignified human relationships.
A technologically advanced civilization that is incapable of cultivating moral responsibility presents a contradiction that deserves investigation.
10. Goodness as a Continuous Practice of Consciousness
Returning to Vedic literature, we can interpret sattva as an important philosophical reference for thinking about balance and the pursuit of knowledge.
However, we must avoid a simplistic conclusion: no individual is permanently protected against the influence of desires, fears, personal interests, and limitations.
Human consciousness is subject to change.
The same person may demonstrate generosity at one moment and selfishness at another.
They may act wisely in one situation and impulsively in another.
They may defend justice when they are the ones being harmed and demonstrate intolerance when their own interests are threatened.
This contradiction should not be ignored.
On the contrary, it is one of the most important elements in understanding our species.
Perhaps the search for goodness does not consist of reaching a definitive state of perfection, but rather of continuously developing the ability to recognize our own mistakes and correct our behavior.
In this sense, self-knowledge becomes essential.
We need to observe what drives us.
What are our desires?
What are our fears?
Why do certain opinions provoke hostility within us?
Why do we feel the need to be superior?
Why do some people awaken our compassion while others immediately awaken our resentment?
These questions have no simple answers.
Nevertheless, they represent an essential exercise for anyone seeking to understand human nature.
Reflection: A Humanity That Knows Goodness but Still Struggles to Fully Practice It
There is something profoundly contradictory about the journey of our species.
We have produced extraordinary texts about love, justice, compassion, and fraternity. We have built temples, universities, religious institutions, and philosophical systems dedicated to the investigation of existence.
We know the teachings of different civilizations.
We know that violence produces suffering.
We know that intolerance destroys communities.
We know that exploitation undermines human dignity.
Yet we continue reproducing behaviors that contradict this knowledge.
Perhaps one of humanity's greatest challenges is not discovering what goodness means, but developing the psychological, cultural, economic, and social conditions necessary to practice it.
Fear of the future, material insecurity, uncontrolled ambition, struggles for power, intolerance, and the permanent need for recognition can undermine our ability to coexist peacefully.
This does not mean humanity is condemned to violence.
History also records countless examples of solidarity, courage, humanitarian assistance, scientific cooperation, peaceful movements, and individuals who dedicated their lives to protecting others.
We must recognize both dimensions.
There is not only a history of wars and destruction. There is also a history of people who have attempted to build better societies.
Goodness continues to exist, even when it receives less visibility than aggression.
And perhaps that is precisely why we need to direct our attention toward it.
Conclusion: Fraternity as a Possibility for the Evolution of Human Consciousness
The investigation that began with the three gunas of Vedic literature allows us to establish an interesting dialogue with different religious traditions, mythologies, philosophies, and observations of the behavior of living beings.
Sattva, rajas, and tamas offer an interpretive framework for reflecting on balance, desire, and ignorance.
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism present their own teachings on justice, mercy, love, compassion, and responsibility.
Mythologies symbolically record conflicts between order and chaos, wisdom and arrogance, harmony and destruction.
History demonstrates that territorial disputes, competition over resources, religion, power, identity, and political interests have played significant roles in numerous human conflicts.
Psychology, in turn, allows us to investigate how fear, insecurity, resentment, and social conditions influence behavior.
And observations of other species demonstrate that cooperation is an important strategy in the organization of life.
All these perspectives offer material for a common question: how can we develop a collective existence in which competition does not eliminate solidarity and differences do not become justifications for violence?
We do not need to belong to the same religion.
We do not need to defend the same ideology.
We do not need to share every opinion.
We do, however, need to recognize that human dignity and life possess a value that transcends our personal disagreements.
Perhaps the true practice of goodness begins when we become capable of recognizing our shared humanity in those who think differently from us.
The world does not need more speeches about moral superiority. It needs people willing to transform ethical principles into concrete actions.
Fraternity is neither a spontaneous condition nor a permanent achievement. It is an ongoing individual and collective practice.
And perhaps the greatest investigation our species still needs to undertake is not exclusively concerned with the external universe, galaxies, the mysteries of matter, or the origins of life.
Perhaps we also need to investigate deeply the inner universe that exists within every human being.
Because a civilization can conquer territories, accumulate wealth, develop extraordinary technologies, and reach other worlds. But if it cannot develop respect for life, justice, and fraternity, it will continue carrying the same conflicts that have accompanied humanity for thousands of years.
The search for goodness is not a weakness of human nature.
It is one of the most important possibilities for its development.
Selected Bibliographical and Documentary References
The following references provide a foundation for further investigation and allow readers to explore the subjects discussed in greater depth:
- Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 14 — The Three Modes of Material Nature.
- Srimad Bhagavatam, particularly Canto 7 and other passages addressing sattva, rajas, and tamas.
- Torah, Leviticus 19:18.
- The Bible, Micah 6:8 and Matthew 5 and 22.
- The Quran, Surahs 5:32 and 16:90.
- Dhammapada, Verse 5.
- Azar Gat, So Why Do People Fight? Evolutionary Theory and the Causes of War. European Journal of International Relations, 2009.
- Jack S. Levy, The Causes of War and the Conditions of Peace. Annual Review of Political Science, 1998.
- Ancient Egyptian mythology: studies on Ma'at, justice, and cosmic order.
- Greek mythology: studies on hybris, xenia, and the limits of human ambition.
R.V. Garcia — RV Garcia Thesis
An Independent Multidisciplinary Investigation into Human Nature, Comparative Religion, History, and Consciousness.
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