meembo

Good God, who would ever want to live in a world like that? "Fate" and natural selection certainly play a role in our lives, but if those were the only operators governing who lives and dies, any idea of fairness or mercy or altruism would go out the window as well. The world would quickly become a brutish place where competition for survival would be the greatest good. If natural selection is the only criteria I have to worry about, then I might see your children as a threat to my children's survival, and therefore worthless to me. Natural selection, right? If I believe your children are eating food my children ought to have, can I kill your children? Can I eat your children? That's what animals do in the wild, obeying the laws of natural selection--is this what you propose society should aspire to be?

We help people who we think don't deserve help because of the principle of the golden rule, an idea propagated through just about every society there ever was. There is always the promise that by helping others as a rule we may be helped someday when we need it (and might not deserve it, in the eyes of those helping you).

Drug abusers and drunk drivers are a drain on society's resources, but so are the overweight, the undereducated, smokers, tax-evaders, etc., etc. When do we choose to ignore their needs? This line of thinking goes nowhere. If we eliminated through attrition every person who needed help sometime in their lives, I can't imagine that we would enjoy a peaceful existence with whoever was left.

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less I say, smarter I am