I was impressed with Michael Werner's lecture in March, and his premise that our moral sense is biological and not theistic in nature. His argument verifies the conclusion of researchers who conducted an eight year study of altruism by analyzing the human characteristics of those people who risked their lives to protect the Jews in Europe during World War II. Time Magazine (3/16/92) covered the researchers' conclusions in the following brief summation of their article.

One researcher, Nechama Tec, drew the following conclusions that challenge the general public's moral assumptions of people in general: "When you look at the 'rescuers' as a large group, you cannot put them into any of the categories that you are used to. They include both rich and poor, educated and barely literate, believers and atheists. But on closer examination, you see a series of interrelated human characteristics." She found, for example, that many of the rescuers were individualists. Most people do what society demands at the moment. But because the rescuers were not as constrained by the expectations of the group, they were better able to act on their own. (Sounds like humanism to me!)

In addition, Tec found that many of the rescuers had a history of doing good deeds before the war. Some visited people in hospitals, others collected books for poor students, still others took care of stray animals. "They just got into the habit of doing good," she says. Many rescuers also shared a sense of universalism. They saw the Jews not as Jews but as persecuted human beings. (Sounds like Unitarianism and Humanism to me!)

Perhaps, most astounding of all, the majority of rescuers believe that the gift of goodness can be passed on. "It is like flowers growing in a certain soil," says Helena, age 71, who with her family secretly sheltered Jews in their home across the street from a police station. "Goodness is natural in every human being, but it must be nourished and cultivated."

Malka Drucker, photographer and interviewer of 105 rescuers from 10 countries concludes, "You don't have to be Mother Teresa. You don't have to be a better person than you already are in order to do good. Turning the rescuers into paragons of perfection would let the rest of humanity off the hook."

According to Michael Werner, these ordinary, human, compassionate acts stem from our biological need to survive. The "reciprocal altruism" he speaks of that becomes "emotionally satisfying" also gratifies our biological need for happiness.

--Nancy Moore