The object of our kindness is generally our own kind. And in this myopia of lost oneness, our kindness is compromised.
Here is what Mark Twain had to say on religiosity and kindness. Religion has not helped in us thinking kindly of each other humans leave apart animals. What use is such religion?
"Man is a religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the 'True Religion' - several of them! He is the only animal that loves his neighbour as himself but cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven. The animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste......Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures. The fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. I am not interested to know whether it is profitable to the human race or not. The pain it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis and sufficient justification of my enmity towards it without looking further. In studying the traits and dispositions of the so-called lower animals, and contrasting them with man's, I find the result humiliating to me."
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Author (1835 - 1910)
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Author (1835 - 1910)
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