Misanthropy

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I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime. I know Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, Is there any way to reconcile misanthropy with Christian charity? I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
 
You don’t like humans?

Not your parents, wife, children, siblings or friends?

So the treatment of the environment makes you unhappy but no mention of abortion?

Do you hate yourself too?

:bible1:
 
No, not at all. However, this does not require you to ignore your concerns about mankind need to be thrown out.

Here’s the problem. Misanthropy comes form the Greek misos, “hate” and anthropos, “man”. Thus it means, literally, to hate mankind, although it is sometimes used to describe a much weaker sort of feeling, a sort of mistrust of man.

Catholics believe that all men are made in God’s image, and thus deserving of respect and a certain amount of dignity. “You shall love each other as I have loved you”, said Jesus, and He loved even those who committed grave sin (the adulteress, for instance) as long as they repented.

HOWEVER, you are entirely right to be disgusted at the way that many human beings behave towards each other. The Catholic response, however, is to admonish the sinner, remind them of the wrongness of their actions, and, if they repent, to lead them to forgiveness and a changed life.

Finally, I think (since I myself used to think much like you did back when I was an atheist/agnostic) that you might find this quote from Chesterton helpful, since it helped me:

When the world goes wrong, it proves rather
that the Church is right. The Church is justified, not because her
children do not sin, but because they do.
- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
 
I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime. I know Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, Is there any way to reconcile misanthropy with Christian charity? I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Well Jesus did say “Love your enemy…”
 
I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime. I know Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, Is there any way to reconcile misanthropy with Christian charity? I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
I can empathize with you. I’d like to elaborate about how I feel about people in general, but it probably wouldn’t be very charitable.

I’ll tell you what. I’ll pray for you, Roger, that through the grace of God that you will be able to see the best rather than the worst in people.

Maybe someone else can pray for us both.
 
I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime…
Chesterton once noted that original sin is the one empirically verifiable Christian dogma.

Be careful, however. There’s a strain of environmentalism that tends towards misanthropy. The only reason to preserve the environment and its resources is for the well-being of current and future generations of humans.

Sometimes volunteering with the poorest or weakest among us can rekindle our love of humanity. Maybe try that? Children especially are capable of melting the hearts of misanthropes.
Abortion falls under crime. .
And no, abortion does not fall under crime. It’s legal in the United States and most of Europe.
 
Thanks Roger, you just helped me feel less alone and unkind. However, I do agree with Kantus that hate is a very strong word, sometimes used when dislike would have been more accurate.

But how to love, or even like, someone I feel victimizes me? By grace I can say that I don’t hate them. I don’t like them. Sometimes I pity them. I think that is appropriate. Sometimes I pray for them, but sometimes I find it hard to do that sincerely. I guess one the things I have yet to learn on this earth, is how to dislike my enemies less and perhaps even how to love them. Yes, lets all pray for each other about this. I find it a huge stumbling block.
 
I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime. I know Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, Is there any way to reconcile misanthropy with Christian charity? I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
They don’t need to be reconciled: one is the answer for the other
 
I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime. I know Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, Is there any way to reconcile misanthropy with Christian charity? I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
I feel sorry for your parents/brothers/sisters/aunts/uncles. Have you told them to their face that you don’t like them??
Misanthropy is a total contradiction to Christianity. It cannot be reconciled. It can only be overcome.
 
I don’t like humans. We destroy the environment, pollute and decimate nature; we fight constantly and are always at war. We are greedy and wasteful. If you live in a city you have to constantly worry about crime. I know Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, Is there any way to reconcile misanthropy with Christian charity? I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Christ commands us to treat individuals with charity. He does not command us to love ‘mankind’. It is possible to be a misanthropist (to despise the collective works of mankind), and maintain Christian charity (to treat individuals with love.)

Take for example Arthur Schopenhauer- a most committed misanthropist. Yet, in daily life, in dealing with individual cases, there was no one more charitable and kind.
 
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