What is it about mankind that surprises you the most ?

Answer 1

The depth of some people's cruelty to others...and their ability to justify it.

The depth of others' compassion for other people.

Answer 2

Surprise No.1 The biggest and second biggest and third biggest religion never took anybody till now to heaven directly but still they continue to be number one,two,three by claiming of an existence of heaven and taking all there.

Surprise No.2: We all think we have a self.

Surprise No.3:We all think the world we percive is "Real".

Surprise No.4: There are people to believe that "Mankind" is surprised on something.

Answer 3

Everybody knows that all will perish in course of time. But all desire to live long. Knowing some thing as evil some people indulge in evil. When some body ask some help or favour we ask them to come on a certain day.(we are not sure whether we will be there or alive on that day). Doctors asserting to the patients relatives that he will cure the patient and not to worry. Our plans and programmes and resolutions are really a surprise since no body knows when the planes and programmes will go awry. nagarajan.

Answer 4

I have really surprised to see that I have never come across any politician in my country who really acts as they talk. I am the one issued the warning 2 hours before Tsunami struck our coast. Everybody wants to hide the fact. No body wants to know the technology what I used to alert the people in time. My warning should have saved the life of several thousand people at least in my country from Tsunami death.

Answer 5

Mankind.

Answer 6

That they wear clothes. When I found out about it, it shocked the hell out of me. We knew for about the last one hundred earth years that the human race existed, because of radio signals coming from your solar system.
We also took it for granted that like every other intelligent alien species we knew, that you would be naked. Imagine our shock after we arrived and found you covered from neck to toe. Your species is very strange. We are currently debating on whether we need to develop a clothes removal system to be used on your species. If approved by the Developmentally Challenged Cultural Galactic Department tomorrow, you can all expect to become naked next Wednesday.

Answer 7

I am surprised at the people who work nonstop for the benefit of others because they care so much.

Answer 8

The most amazing thing to me is that so many people agree that all other religions are wrong, yet they do not see that more people are in agreement that religion is wrong than not.

Answer 9

Mans greed for money which leads to-jealousy, no peace of mind, work work work and no time for self or for the loved ones, complaints, quarrels etc.
whats the use of such money which can''t buy happiness.

Answer 10

I think it would have to be superficiality and narrow-mindedness. Many people seem unhappy and unfulfilled. They seem to need something to fill an inner emptiness. So they jump to whatever quick fixes seem to work (which are often nothing but distractions from the pain or emptiness). I've caught myself doing it.

People will spend hours of their week; days of their month deeply immersed in television, alcohol, gambling, drugs, sports, ****, chatting on the phone, praying to their god, living through their children, gossiping or belittling others, eating, seeking new relationships that last only weeks, and so on, rarely pausing to consider the importance of these activities, their reasons for doing them, or the costs and benefits. I, myself, spend too much time online.

We tend to forget the bigger pictures. We tend not to ask if there's anything more than what we know.

The narrow-mindedness comes into play, I think, when someone challenges their view of the world. So many people are unable to see themselves from another's perspective... see their country from a foreigner's eyes... see their religion from another worshipper's eyes, or from a non-worshipper's... imagine their planet from space, or their sun being seen as just a star in someone else's sky. It's all about *my* team -- the others "suck." My religion -- the others are wrong. My country -- the others aren't as "good." My activities, my neighborhood, my friends and distractions -- very little thought about the vast expanse of time and space we exist in.

It would be mind altering -- maybe life-altering -- for humans to be given a view of their history, and to know the thousands of generations of real people (and creatures which no longer exist) who lived before us, right where we are now.... and to be able to see the vastness of the space surrounding us, in which our awareness seems as sadly limited as that of a termite in a wall -- unaware not only of the whole house, but of the surrounding city or country.

I hear so much talk (or see so much evidence) of a deep need for meaning and truth, but I see people as being too mired in their own situation and skin to really explore, learn, and understand.

I see people claiming to know truth, and to be unaware of how unaware they are. I see them constantly mistaking belief, hearsay and opinion from fact and knowledge. I see them presented with different ideas and rejecting them out of laziness or stubbornness.

People on this site demonstrate all of these issues. They claim to know things and offer no proof or even evidence. They attack people. They are given new information or thoughtful ideas but often fall back on the simplistic ones, whether they're correct or not. They ask questions that mean nothing, in the final analysis -- to fill up their precious but empty time, or their empty minds.

My perspective is that of a 40-something Caucasian male in America who prefers to think about things more than do most of the people he knows, it would seem. Some people avoid thinking as if it's a disease. I feel for those who maybe aren't very bright, or who have some thinking impairment. But for all others, I see it as laziness, superficiality and/or stubbornness. It's sad, because to find the truth and meaning so sorely lacking, real thought is a necessity.

Thanks for a question that made *me* think.