We have erroneously been led to believe, based on Darwin’s work on evolutionary theory, in the survival of the fittest, that competition and winning is the goal of life. But Darwin was grossly misrepresented and misinterpreted.

In “The Origin of the Species,” Darwin mentioned survival of the fittest only twice, but mentioned love 95 times. He described competition nine times, but mutual aid 24 times. Darwin observed that organisms that work together for the common good have better evolutionary outcomes. We are hard wired for cooperation, not competition.

If we consume too much media, we may begin to believe the messages that seek to divide us. We may start to see the world as us vs them. We may begin fearing or hating the poor, the immigrants, the refugees, the police, the protesters, the gays, the whites, the blacks, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Muslims, the Others. We may find ourselves believing we are superior, more virtuous, more deserving, the Chosen Ones.

We may be in danger of believing the lie that we are in a competition that must be won to ensure our own survival.

But we must not allow ourselves to believe this lie. Every person is our brother and our sister, no matter their country of origin, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation or race. Now more than ever in the history of humanity. We must learn to work for the common good to ensure our collective survival.

The Golden Rule, treat other people the way you want to be treated, is taught in every religion. Jesus said that to “Love your neighbor as yourself” is second only to the command to love God. When asked, “Who is my neighbor?,” he told the parable of the Good Samaritan – purposefully elevating the despised foreigner as the hero of the story, the only person to help a man in need after the religious leaders passed him by. By Jesus’ definition, we are not following God’s law if we do not have compassion for others and demonstrate that compassion through deeds.

On a societal level, we have to come to terms with how to elevate the state of each member. The current system is not sustainable. We cannot continue to allow the accumulation of great wealth by a few while millions of others cannot meet their basic needs of food, shelter, health care or education.

Tom Shaydac, in the documentary “I Am,” said, “The redwood tree doesn’t take all the soil and nutrients, just what it needs to grow. A lion doesn’t kill every gazelle, just one. We have a term for something in the body when it takes more than its share, we call it: cancer.”

One of the principles of the Baha’i Faith is the eventual elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, so that every person’s basic needs may be met and they may live a more self-actualized life.

Abdu’l-Baha wrote in “The Foundations of World Unity,” “If conditions are such that some are happy and comfortable and some in misery; some are accumulating exorbitant wealth and others are in dire want—under such a system it is impossible for man to be happy … God is kind to all. The good pleasure of God consists in the welfare of all the individual members of mankind. The purport is this: that we are all inhabiting one globe of earth. In reality we are one family and each one of us is a member of this family. We must all be in the greatest happiness and comfort, under a just rule and regulation, which is according to the good pleasure of God, thus causing us to be happy, for this life is fleeting.”