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In a Cruel World, Where Does Mercy Come From?
On cormorants and kindness
Where does mercy come from?
Say what you want about belief in the supernatural, but it makes some questions easier to answer. God is good, we were told in school, and any impulses toward morality in humans come from this single source of benevolence.
Of course, to a child with even the slightest bit of natural curiosity, another question presents itself immediately after. The problem of evil.
The world is merciless. Not cruel, because cruelty implies pattern, order, intent. The struggle for survival every organism fights has no room for any of that. And certainly no room for mercy.
The suffering is incalculable. I’m not even talking about the gory scenes from the nature documentaries, the lions’ faces matted with blood. There are far worse fates. Take even a cursory glance at the habits of parasites that turn their prey into living incubators for their children to eat their way out of. It will put you right off your feed.
But we still believe in mercy. We believe in being better. We hold ourselves to higher standards than those of the natural world.
We don’t just want to win the game of survival. We want to win it with our hands clean.
