The Christians have Original Sin, and we Jews have the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), both pretty much saying that we are all born as sinners.
But could what we consider to be a sinful nature simply be a survival instinct?
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
How do children show their “sinful” side? Isn’t it when they won’t share things they desire, such as food or toys? Later, when they grow older, they are cruel to each other, especially to those who are different from themselves by rejecting them from their circle of friends.
These character traits we usually identify as “sinful”; however, if we look at it from a survival viewpoint, it kinda makes sense.
The most basic instinct in all living creatures is to survive; Yeshua said so when he said the greatest act of love is to give one’s life for another. So, when we see something that we consider to be necessary for our survival, isn’t it normal that we would desire and protect that thing?
As we get older and more mature, we protect things that aren’t really lifesaving, such as our possessions, our finances, our jobs, and other important and necessary things for survival (like those box seat tickets). As adults, that survival instinct presents itself as selfishness, discompassionate nature, and being just plain nasty.
What happens is that as we age, our basic survival instinct mutates into sinfulness.
Coveting what someone else has, such as a new car, a beautiful spouse, or a better job is not much different, really, than living in the wild, being hungry, and seeing someone else with a fresh kill. Instinct will drive us to try to steal that kill, won’t it?
The hyena is considered to be a repugnant creature, whereas the American Bald Eagle is considered to be a noble creature, yet they are both scavengers! Both would rather steal the food from another than to hunt and catch their own food- that’s their survival instinct at work
Now, don’t get me wrong- I am not saying that you can be selfish and hedonistic and miserly without consequence or responsibility just because it is instinct.
Nope! It don’t work that way.
What I am suggesting, and I could be way off on this entire idea, is that when we are sinful, it isn’t because (as the comedian Flip Wilson used to say)…“The Devil made me do it!” It is part of our very psyche, from the very beginning of creation, and is (again) the basic instinct of all living beings- we want to survive.
Now comes the clincher: even though it is instinct, it is not acceptable.
God has made us in his image, meaning (at least, to me) that we have the ability to overcome our instincts, to take control of our emotions, and to be able to do what is right instead of what is wrong.
What is considered to be right and wrong can be different in different cultures; at times, they might be in exact opposition to each other. But with the society we live in, we all have the obligation to behave in accordance with what that society sees as right.
Those of us who are faithfully obedient to God, and try to live as best as we can to the instructions he gave us in the Torah, sometimes find that we are in opposition to the society we live in. Today, sadly, we also find that living in accordance to the Torah is too often in opposition to what many Christian religions say. And when that happens, we must make a decision. Instinctively, we may feel that we want to go along with society (or our religion) because being like everyone else, we will be accepted (there’s that survival instinct thing, again), but sometimes that means rejecting God’s ways.
That’s a tough call for most, but for the truly faithful, there’s no real option- it has got to be God’s way. That is sort of an advanced survival instinct, in that we aren’t concerned with our survival in this life, but with our survival in the afterlife.
So, I guess what I am saying is that evil may be nothing more, in some cases, than an extension of our basic instinct to survive, but that doesn’t mean we can allow it to control us. We must control our instincts, and do what is right- not just according to our societal rules, but overall, to what God says is right.
And when they clash, well…then the decision we must make is this: do we do what we have to do to survive in this life, or do we do what God says we should do in order to survive in the afterlife?
Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even those who are not believers. Hey, after all- you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
