“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion … People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love … For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite,” Obama said, quoting former South African president Nelson Mandela”. This is lifted from a google search for Obama’s tweets about Charlottesville violence.

It brought tears to my eyes and reinforced the differences in style between this past president and the current one. The difference is as big as the grand canyon.
But i also am a biologist, and also a student of religion. It is clear that identification of “self” and “others similar to self” is a big part of survival, procreation, continuation of the species. We need to be taught to “hate” but we are wired to “love like minded and like-looking humans”.

Some religions, cultures, philosophies, teach that LOVE casts out fear, and it is typically fear that causes us to “hate” or be “aggressive”. Other religions teach people to “HATE and OBLITERATE” what is different in an effort to allay their fears about survival. Fear itself is either learned, or experienced or both. Extrapolate teachings and experiences, to unhealthy mindsets, and daily situations, and one ends up an enormous amount of fear, hate and violence.  We need to overcome fear with the more powerful force, which is LOVE.