What's invented about it? People compete with what they perceive as "nature;" despite being part of nature ourselves, we conceive of it also as something external to ourselves, and it is something we are trying to outdo, whether it be delaying our deaths or empowering ourselves over our environment.
However I agree that seeing all of this as "natural" is a very healthy perspective.
Well, not only that, but it gives you a mentally tangible place in the perpetual chain of evolution towards higher life forms.
I agree its not proper to project human sentiments and modes of operation on to nature; however I believe we are, quite obviously, in possession of sentiments that mirror those of nature's operation; in my view we should be proud of some, ashamed of others, and aware of all of them.
Yes I agree. Well, "made up" is a bit biased terminology; I would prefer originated. And to take the proper scope, I wouldn't look specifically at war so much as I would the instinct it is a manifestation of: large-scale competition. What could be more evolutionarily efficient than testing to see which group of people carries superior genetic tendencies for attaining superiority and strength? It's not like strength has ZERO productive or positive comorbidities; in fact, if we take a look, it seems responsible for quite a few of our favorite, and most practical, inventions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_invention
http://www.lowvarates.com/va-loan-bl...ry-inventions/
Just a quick google search; I'm sure in-depth research would reveal many more important examples.
However now we have nuclear weapons, which unfortunately seem to threaten the existence of ALL humans on some level, so perhaps hubris is truly an applicable term; only time will tell.
IMO "mastering the earth" is a retarded and self-stroking sentiment; actually doing it, on the other hand, has less to do with the earth being some grand obstacle, and more to do with the idea that we are simply continually growing and improving as a species. We will need to stop, eventually, before we reach the limits of whatever abstract level of the surface-area-to-volume principle applies to our evolution as a species, whether it is on this planet or another, and so forth, but, realistically...will we? Look at us now. Obviously we will improve, but who knows what the curves look like? Who knows if we are inventing and improving fast enough to grant our species continued existence? The only thing we can be certain of is that we are running out of time.