We go wrong by failing to recognize and rise above our natural and learned biases,
and by lacking the will and courage to avoid descending into hedonism, groupism, and imposition.
Hedonism
One means of coping with the conflict between self-interest and the greater good
is to focus on self-interest and disregard the greater good.
In dire circumstances
where false beliefs ultimately fail to appease our survival instinct,
rebuilding a valid belief system may require greater will and courage
than we have at the time.
Hedonism presents itself as an easier alternative,
but for most,
hedonism is ultimately unfulfilling,
since it fails to appease our instinct to promote the greater good.
Groupism
Another means of coping with the conflict between self-interest and the greater good
is to focus on the needs of the population with which we identify
and to disparage the needs or worth of those outside our group.
The very core of religious activism is the process of pulling people together on the basis of imagined benefits.
It is this very process that pulls the group apart from everyone else, creating pockets of competing, contentious rivals.
Groupism is at the root of war, slavery, dehumanization, and class conflicts.
Imposition
It is always possible that one’s most deeply held beliefs may be wrong,
therefore it is never ethical to impose one’s beliefs on any other person.
Primitive and backward cultures and religions are easily recognized as such
by their need to
use fear and violence in order to be perpetuated.