Saturday 12 January 2002

Pic of the day: And of course, there is "Do unto others as they would do unto you, and do it first."

Universal morality

I think we are nearing the end of the gray streak here, please hang on for one more abstract entry. I expect fluff to return shortly.

I don't know who most of you people are. Except for a couple of relatives and friends, I only know the country or big corporation you belong to. Yet I know, from the few e-mails I have received, approximately what kind of people read this journal: Highly intelligent, open-minded adults of any age. And almost all of you come from countries that have been heavily influenced by Christianity.

From my other meetings with such people, it is no great leap of reason to guess that some of you have suffered at the hands of Christians in your past. Some may have suffered insult and injustice because you are wiccan, gay, atheist or feminist; some may have suffered violence or sexual abuse from elder family or church members who then proceeded to sing the Lord's praise in church next Sunday. It happens all too often.

And yet I can not and will not deny that I too am a Christian. It may be a cold comfort that as a heretic, I just might have joined you at the burning stake during the dark ages. I hope that the preceding four entries (or articles, almost) have convinced you that I am not in this just out of tradition or a need to belong to some group. It is a deeply personal experience and relationship, if such a word can be used, with a spiritual entity.

As a Christian, I have a ready-made morality to pull on. Oh, there may be different colors and textures made by the different churches over time, but there is a lot of common ground. Obviously if we believe that our faith is true, then we believe that the others are correspondingly wrong whenever they differ from ours. But in addition, I also firmly believe that these other people are just as convinced as I am, and that they consider me wrong whenever I think differently from them. If you don't believe that what you believe is true, then you don't believe it at all. So is there a way to find a common ground, for the purpose of this short life on Earth?

***

Unlike most believers, I have spent some time reading holy scriptures of other religions (privately, not as part of job or education) as well as secular philosophy and the psychology of religion. I know that most believers cannot bear to do this, because they feel that it would pollute their own pure belief. Maybe this is so. Or perhaps they are just insecure. Or lazy. No, I am lazy, so that's probably not it. Perhaps they just don't have the time, or think it could be better spent. It probably could. But I sincerely believe that someone should do this. The net effect is to increase the amount of truth in my life, because it dispells the convenient lies about others. Truth is good.

At its most gross level, many members of minor sects believe that all others are enjoying and encouraging all manner of carnal sins, such as adultery, drunkenness and random violence. Given that the unbelievers are spawn of Satan, what do you expect? He was a manslaughterer from the beginning. If they seem to act nice, they are probably just trying to seduce you over to the dark side, where they can have mad animal sex with your pristine body and enjoy the gradual corruption of your pure and holy mind. There is nothing a spawn of Satan enjoys as much as the slow, painful corruption of the innocent.

At some point, however, the curious human will meet members of two different such sects, both equally convinced that the other are out to corrupt them into drunken debauchery. Much as I'd like to see a Witness try to seduce a Mormon, I think we have to scrap this theory. Evidently Satan either is a lot more subtle than he is given credit for, or a lot less powerful. So let's move on to other religions.

What do you know, the same happens again. Muslims eye Christians with the same suspicion, and Hindus suspect Muslims. Buddhists doubt everyone, even themselves. Clearly, if we want to be substantially better than the competition, we cannot rely on them to be evil. We will have to go out of our way to be good. We have to go the second mile, as it were.

***

There have been several attempts at a universal morality, and at a Grand Unified Law of ethics. Secular humanists like the "silver rule" (though obviously they do not call it that): "Don't do to others what you would not have them do to you." It is all too human to have one set of rules for myself, and another for the rest. Living life with cheat codes. Don't do that.

Also popular is the "golden rule", made famous by Jesus the founder of Christianity: "Do to others what you would have them do to you." This is a more active approach, and it has the benefit that in many cases they will actually start to do the same thing to you. If you smile at the world, eventually at least part of the world will start to smile back. It is a human trait to echo the attitude of others, though of course there are some who don't. Some people are so insecure that they cannot even repay good with good, but suck it all up like a black hole. More the pity for them, because doing good makes a human happy.

Immanuel Kant made a slightly more abstract approach: "Act in such a way that it could be used as a template for a universal law." (Slightly rewritten by me.) That is to say: What would happen if all people did the way you do? This is a good way of thinking in many cases, but it is not always relevant. If all people did what I do regarding sex, humanity would be extinct within a century. And if all people were doing office work, we would starve to death within months.

I have thought of a modified golden rule: "Do to others what you think they would like, unless this would hurt someone." I mean, some people really like coffee, which I cannot drink. According to the golden rule, they should continue to serve me coffee till judgment day, because that is what they would want me to do unto them. And woe betide those who hook up with a masochist who follow the golden rule. (Of course it wasn't meant that way, but you know how dumb people can be.) We know that sometimes others don't like the same things that we do. And we need an opt-out so as to not give self-destructive people a further shove downhill.

For the more laid-back, there is always the Wiccan way: "If it harms no one, do what you will." Or simply, live and let live. Life is short enough as is.