When did “forgiveness” become part of life? More precisely, there is no need for forgiveness in the animal world up to the early Homo sapiens, say, some 50,000 years ago… oh, there is no resentment, no revenge either but, of course, violence for survival/protection is part of life in all organisms: So what triggered the need for forgiveness?
Humans are **aware** of themselves. They are aware of others as well. This awareness leads to the question, “What is right and what is wrong?” When what is right fails, humans are aware of this. A central response of mending the effects of this wrong-doing is forgiveness (the awareness that even though the other did wrong, one can accept the wrong-doer as a person). So, awareness starts the sequence which leads to forgiveness. No other species seems to be self-aware like this.
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