Start from the beginning in the Intro Article here.
If you have not read article 1, you can read that here.
Morality is the force guiding the conscience away from evil and towards the good. Examples of morals are around us everyday. They are not like daydreaming, because they are authoritative. If we live a self-centered lifestyle, then our conscience will pursue us until things get reconciled. We have a need for justice in the case of bad things, and we strive for the creation of good things. The bad is selfish, while the good is selfless. A firefighter risks his life for the safety of people and even other living creatures. In doing so, he’s selfless and therefore good.
If you were to walk into a room filled with stinky garbage, you would likely be disgusted. But if you were to walk in a room with dead bodies and open wounds, you would most likely be shaken (if not traumatized).
Why is that so different? The quality of life means something. Now, a couple of subcultures have adjusted to living in those conditions, but obviously, those are exceptions rather than the rule.
In the mid 1800's, the evolutionary naturalists of the day had become pretty confident that they had explained away all spiritual phenomena. However, they ended up passing the responsibility over to the new realm of psychology. Some concluded that all spiritual experience boiled down to mental evolution or mental lapses. They deemed that the drive of humanity was sexual rather than moral. Morality then breaks down to a will to power.
In their viewpoint, figments of the imagination may not be real in the physical world even though they are real in the world of the mind! That’s the impression we get when we look at the research of the psychologist Dr. Carl Jung, for example.
There are universal symbols and myths within all people called archetypes. These archetypes developed a story in the hearts of all people that give us a backdrop for morality. Even thousands of years ago, a Roman law teacher named Cicero picked up on the concept of a monotheistic God being the Final Judge of right and wrong over a morality we call natural law. This would develop the legal framework of western civilization.
Now, Judeo-Christian ethics are not that man is complete as a moral creature but rather, that man is damaged. That ethical framework explains why there are a variety of differences in ethics. However, we must simply ask ourselves which system of morality is better over all. Is the Christian theist, Muslim, pantheist, Hindu, or secular morality the best?
The Hindu model has justice carry over to different lifespans of reincarnation. The problem is that nothing you do is dealt with in your lifetime. You will be punished for a past life and rewarded in a future life. Worse yet, you neither remember nor have evidence of any reincarnation. This encourages society to have indignity to the suffering of people in society and to be apathetic to those victimizing society.
That is what we have seen in the Indian social caste system. In the caste system, different people have different ranks of respectability in society. The top rank (Brahmins) include scholars and priests; the second rank (Kshatriyas) include government officials and soldiers; the third rank (Vaishyas) include farmers and merchants; the fourth rank (Shudras) include the artisans and common laborers; the fifth rank are the outcasts who are to be ignored or dismissed.
The atheistic models range from no regard for human rights or regard only for a segment of the population (as is the case for Marxism). So then, in an atheistic and evolutionary worldview, what accounts for civilization’s morality? How would it have come about? The notion of “the survival of the fittest” only shows us the natural selfishness of a secular philosophy.
We should ask more questions too regarding a secular model of morality. What shows the intellectual justification for selfless morality under atheism? How could a human being be ruled by unselfish instincts? How can a heathen culture know to construct a selfless civilization? Even with an advanced culture, the group does not necessarily care for the individual. So, why does the individual have any value in the whole?
The Judeo-Christian model rewards the hard-working members of society as well as gives empathy to those suffering. While there are always exceptions to the rule, Christian values provide us with the most ideal model of society.
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment"
———John 16:7-8
Continue to Article 3 here.
Notes:
In a nation of choices there is still a backdrop of light moral authority so society does not break down into anarchy. The movements as of late are intending to destroy the nation. We can only survive if we recognize one nation under God.
Cicero and moral law
"True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.... It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We can not be freed from it's obligations by senator or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will never be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now or in the future, but one eternal, unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, it's promulgator, and it's enforcing Judge. whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment." (Quoted by Ebenstein, Great Political Thinkers p. 133)
According to Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), archetypes are patterns that repeat themselves in the collective unconscious of human beings. This could be in the form of dreams, stories, art, or even in myths (including religious ones), which don't seem to have cultural boundaries. These are then seen as universal and thus embody a hereditary factor of the human psyche."
"EVIDENCE FOR ARCHETYPES can be divided into several different categories: (1) ‘associative evidence’, similar or associative theory which overtly supports archetypes or bears a resemblance to archetypal theory; (2) ‘scientific evidence’, where it is argued Jung’s method which is descriptive and phenomenological is not unscientific, and ‘archetypes’ are given theoretical support from the theory of other scientists; (3) ‘evidence from quantum physics’, which is support from the theory of quantum physicists."
Abductive moral reasoning compares the general systems of ethics and determines which is more favorable as opposed to what is perfect. Legal application:
We have several lines of evidence that reveal universal morality. This is part of the American understanding of law. The natural law and common law have a divine morality that supersedes the constitutional law of the land. We enshrine this in the declaration of Independence as well as the 7th amendment regarding common law. These are philosophically founded upon common sense philosophy recognizing God.
"The secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in it’s adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western civilization and the Common Law of the United States.” Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist