Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media

The Biological Instincts of Revenge and Forgiveness

We're producing a program on revenge and forgiveness — concepts that can be very lofty. We'd like to bring them down to earth and ground them in personal experiences.

Our guest, Michael McCullough, describes how recent scientific studies may help us comprehend how revenge came to be as our species evolved from primate to human. At the same time, he stresses, science is also revealing that human beings are more instinctively equipped for forgiveness than we've perhaps given ourselves credit for. Knowing this suggests ways to calm the revenge instinct in ourselves and others and strengthen our capacity to forgive.

He also brings the concepts of revenge and forgiveness down to the personal level. Vigorous conversation, he says, is essential in nurturing the act of forgiveness. Though large acts of forgiveness can be difficult, he says it's imperative that we make things a little messy in the service of making them better. And sometimes, even watching someone apologize can be the next best thing to getting revenge.

We're looking for your stories of revenge, of forgiveness, and of what you've learned in your experience of them both.

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» How do you better understand your capacity for revenge and your ability for forgiveness?
» What specific experiences do you have where you've found yourself operating
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