Curious: do you differentiate between “greed” and “desire”?
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Yes. Greed requires comparison. Desire does not.
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I disagree. To desire something is to compare favorably a possible world where you have it against the actual world where you don't.
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Your definition of desire then would not include those you do not choose to have, as your definition is predicated upon comparison and comparison implies choice. Yet you still have them, so you must call them something.
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Comparison does not imply choice. I can see the difference between A and B without choosing either.
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Seeing the difference is not the same as comparison. Seeing the difference between A and B is not a choice, it's a given. Comparison is choosing to value the attributes of A against the attributes of B.
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Comparison itself is just perception of difference. Choosing is preferring one over another after having compared.
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Sorry -- perception of differences and similarities.
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Sex is not a belief system. It just is.
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And greed? Maybe sex is all belief systems

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Although we are wired in some ways towards greed as an evolutionary advantage, it is incomparable to sex, which is the mechanism through which evolution exists in the first place.
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Sex sounds layered. We may be having a homonymy. The basic biological bit is one thing. As you said. The human-specific mythologizing and rich psychological experience around sex is another. I wouldn't hesitate to call the latter potentially religious.
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I know how you meant it. We inescapably create belief systems in our own image. The Creator in all religious traditions being the most obvious example built around the opposite to sex : The primary "God" is parentless. However, all this is more sophisticated.
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Greed is a belief system built around the simplest of premises : More equals better. Even the most primitive of men understand its promise for salvation. It is easily adopted : The more "converts" there are, the more the pattern reinforces itself, exponentially.
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The most successful religions limit but also sanction greed.
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There is a good reason for this. If they didn't do it, greed would prevail as a belief system. It is much older than any religion. Stories abound in the Old Testament (to take one example) e.g. tower of Babel.
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Exactly. Religions codify and channel. Christianity implicitly permits some sin through its forgiveness mechanism.
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I had my money on it being self delusion.
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Greed is belief system, and all belief systems are delusional by design. You were right on the money.
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Reality is a belief system for existence
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