Continuing on with this discussion of morality, who hasn't heard the old saw, rules were made to be broken? In any aspect of life -- from a 5 year old testing his/her parents rules all the way to companies trying to find loopholes in congressional acts or statutes -- it appears to be the nature of ego-driven humans to need to push the envelope. Whenever a rule is established, most of us will try to find a way to skirt the rule, even if only slightly.
Who among us always drives our vehicle according to the posted speed limit? It's always ironic when one driver curses someone else for driving like a bat out of hell while, simultaneously, the person doing the complaining also is driving over the speed limit.
Who among us has never fudged a bit on our tax return?
Who among us hasn't brought a pencil, pen or sundry other items home from work and not returned them? We might rationalize to ourselves that it's only a pen or a pencil, but it's a form of theft, nonetheless.
And who among us has never been untruthful? We can create all types of excuses for our little indiscretions -- "I didn't want to hurt her feelings." "Believe me, it will make this go more smoothly." "It would have really upset him." "Hey, everybody does it at one time or another."
Consequently, a supreme being would know intuitively that establishing a moral code would be a direct invitation for humans to broach it. And so, it seems kind of strange that he/she/it would become upset when the beings he/she/it created utilized the nature he/she/it bestowed upon them to try to skirt the rules.
More importantly, pushing the envelope is not necessarily a bad thing. Civilization would not have progressed if humans, by our very nature, weren't inquisitive envelope pushers. Our view of the world and its various elements continually changes as courageous people have been willing to "think outside the box".
For the longest time, the Christian church supported the antiquated belief that the earth is flat. To disagree amounted to blasphemy and a repudiation of the divine's almighty plan. Put another way, it was immoral to question the pope -- God's emissary here on earth. Yet, some folks would not allow themselves to be constrained by these moral precepts and today we laugh at the notion that a ship can sail off the edge of the earth.
In the end, morality undermines the very thing it seeks to accomplish -- a rigid type of right behavior. Wherever morality is erected, immorality runs rampant. Therefore, morality doesn't save us at all from our evil selves; it exacerbates it!
Who among us always drives our vehicle according to the posted speed limit? It's always ironic when one driver curses someone else for driving like a bat out of hell while, simultaneously, the person doing the complaining also is driving over the speed limit.
Who among us has never fudged a bit on our tax return?
Who among us hasn't brought a pencil, pen or sundry other items home from work and not returned them? We might rationalize to ourselves that it's only a pen or a pencil, but it's a form of theft, nonetheless.
And who among us has never been untruthful? We can create all types of excuses for our little indiscretions -- "I didn't want to hurt her feelings." "Believe me, it will make this go more smoothly." "It would have really upset him." "Hey, everybody does it at one time or another."
Consequently, a supreme being would know intuitively that establishing a moral code would be a direct invitation for humans to broach it. And so, it seems kind of strange that he/she/it would become upset when the beings he/she/it created utilized the nature he/she/it bestowed upon them to try to skirt the rules.
More importantly, pushing the envelope is not necessarily a bad thing. Civilization would not have progressed if humans, by our very nature, weren't inquisitive envelope pushers. Our view of the world and its various elements continually changes as courageous people have been willing to "think outside the box".
For the longest time, the Christian church supported the antiquated belief that the earth is flat. To disagree amounted to blasphemy and a repudiation of the divine's almighty plan. Put another way, it was immoral to question the pope -- God's emissary here on earth. Yet, some folks would not allow themselves to be constrained by these moral precepts and today we laugh at the notion that a ship can sail off the edge of the earth.
In the end, morality undermines the very thing it seeks to accomplish -- a rigid type of right behavior. Wherever morality is erected, immorality runs rampant. Therefore, morality doesn't save us at all from our evil selves; it exacerbates it!
Hi R T
ReplyDeleteI agree. And my son who has sent me the daily Tao and really allys with Taoism and NOT Christianity. It was he that first challenged my crusted strict, rigid Catholic Italian armor - I remember how sad Iwas when my armor first cracked. Little by little a more reasonable view has seeped in as parts of my traditional religious armor have left kicking and screaming. -
You are one of the few whose words I have let seep in - some times I spit them right back out as ws hte case in the post before this one - sometimes they are palatable - it's all a process..
thanks for your patience
love Gail
peace.....