Paying attention to the natural world leads to some interesting insights.

One of the main realizations I’ve had is that organisms lack compassion and empathy in the natural world.

People have empathy but if the spider was bigger than the human and you were caught in its web that thing would crawl over and inject the ensnared with a neurotoxin that would liquify its organs and then suck out the contents as they died a horrific and painful death. Absolutely no compassion or concern with the agony.

Birds eat other bird’s hatchlings alive. Otters rape baby seals to death. Predators kill the young and weak of their prey and tear them apart while they’re still alive. Male bears kill cubs to “mate” with the mother. The shit that happens in nature is extreme and horrifying. But is it what the universe intends?

I think a case can be made why compassion and empathy are heretical to the longstanding laws of the natural world. Are these emotions a weakness? A mistake? Or something positive emerging from higher order intelligence that many other creatures just can’t access?

I see lack of compassion and empathy in a lot of individuals who are otherwise considered quite successful in human societies. Makes me wonder if the universe tends to reward adherence to natural law…