Good questions Paul, and I didn't, in my opinion, hit the bullseye on this issue. Too bad, you get one shot on the forum. But it is an interesting proposition that Mansfield makes. However I still think it is transparently bogus. Maybe you make choices from "the gut" or from "the heart", two organs that don't think; but we are responsible in the end to make decisions based on real truths, not perceived truths.

Are people inherently good or inherently bad? Neither. We are a species of animal, a highly tribal animal; and conflict I suspect has always been resolved by violence. The crazy person so judged by the tribe is stoned, crucified, or burned. The witch is killed with a stake through her heart for casting spells, causing children and cattle to die, or rains for crops to disappear. However we also have sympathy for others and take care of them, and bury them with flowers when they die. But are we good for the other creatures? For the yet to be born? What's the answer there?