The kind of unsung, value-creating activities I mentioned in my previous post do not easily lend themselves to any of those venues, and my guess is that those involved in those unsung actions are typically not given over to self-promotion.

Monotheistic religion, which is the cultural base for much of the world, assumes an outside higher power or superior being. This power is defined as a kind of superhuman, with many if not all of the attributes of ordinary humans, save that it has unlimited power, knowledge and prerogative. The Star Trek Next Generation series had a recurring superhuman, nearly godlike character called Q who was a great case study in why it would likely be cosmically disastrous if such a being or beings exist.

Wanting things to stay the same forever, one expression of this cultural imperative, along with wanting to control and use as much of everything and everyone else as possible, fuel much, if not all, of what is wrong with human interaction today and all the complex, and debilitating, relationships and institutions in today’s world.

There are no sane justifications for war, for sacrificing the welfare of coming generations on behalf of excess by the present one, or for sacrifice of even a single human life for some other, allegedly greater, purpose.

True immortality seems to me to rather be living in such a way that one creates true value for self and others. There are people who have lived that way — Gandhi and King in recent times come to mind — and people who are living that way now. But they are still a small minority in the world.

These true humanists are fighting the often lonely, and mostly unreported struggle day in and day out to show that a humanistic society is possible and that indeed, it is the only realistic hope for humanity.

This is the core statement and it comes from Psychology, not historians or anthropologists.

The immortality drive is the major driving force behind human nature.

Are you saying there is no such drive? In a blog comment from a Facebook post? : )