The Altruism of Babies

I have a 13 month old baby who has recently started offering us portions of her food to share. Of course, she also throws herself on the floor and screams when you stop her from climbing on everything like a monkey. We often hear that people are naturally bad and need to be civilized in order to overcome their natural tendency towards sin. I have always thought that this was an overly simplistic view verging on blasphemy since it denies the fact that we are made in God's image and His glory cannot be obliterated by our tendency to sin. Now science is backing me up; there's a story in the Chicago Tribune today about scientists studying empathy in toddlers. The toddlers very consistently and without exception tried to help when they saw the need. Of course from an evolutionary as well as a theological point of view this makes sense as humanity needs to be cooperative and altruistic in order to survive. We're just designed that way and I think that's a good thing to remember.