A tutorial completed

I will now summarize several papers I've written that each have a tremendous and affecting background. Treat it as you will.

I wrote a psychology paper on pure altruism.

I concluded that it cannot exist. Humanity is too biologically set to self-preservation, self-interest, for any action to not be fundamentally motivated by this. (Interestingly, even bacteria act as a united force out of self-interest. Self preservation leads to cooperation, else they would die out before they count mount a successful attack.)

That said, it cannot be proven that all motivation is fundamentally self-interested and functionally some actions are altruistic. So for practical reasons (and to maintain hope in humanity), sure, altruistic actions exist.

The next day, I had a tutorial in the philosophy of religion. We were discussing the source of morality and if God is the only capable lawgiver.

I concluded that rationality begets morality (cf. Kant), but in a theistic context, God would have created the universe and everything in it, ergo God is the source of morality from rationality.

My next psychology paper was on the health benefits of religion. Living in community is important to a healthy life!

My last psychology paper was on religious prejudice and if indeed conflict attributed to religion is due to the religious ingroup or another ingroup.

I concluded that religion is simply the most salient identity, but that this conflict would occur even outside of religion just under a different banner.

Humanity is depraved whether or not they say a deity commanded their behavior.

And with that, I have completed my Primary Tutorial at Oxford University.