Morality
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The history of moral evolution is intertwined with the history of ethics and law. A discussion on its historical development is presented in Ethics.
In Transcendent Evolution, each level of transcended life form has a unique life force which causes the components of the entity to act in unity to put the survival and continuance-in-kind of the transcended entity before that of the components that comprise the entity. The entity in turn distributes the rewards of its unified efforts to its components, thus all the member components share in its prosperity.
In the discussion of morality, some level of “human society” is the transcended entity - the life force of which may be called a “collective social conscience,” which is one of the characteristics ascribed in Transcendent Reality to god, or God, depending on the level of evolution of the human society. The other important attribute of god or God is the strength of social unity. If “human society” is the transcended entity, then the individual humans comprising that society, along with imbedded subgroups of humans, are the essential components.
Morality is a decision facing an individual human of whether to further their own selfish interests or to further the greater collective interest of his society. A moral decision may be easy when the interests of the greater society are the same as the interests of the individual. However, the moral decision may be very difficult when the interests of the greater society oppose the interests of the individual, or the interests of a subgroup of the greater society.
Morality Conflicts
Conflicting morality often exists between the individual and the family, clan, tribe or state level of the society in which he is a member. Moreover, conflicts of morality also may exist between different levels of the greater society, e.g., between family and clan, family and tribe, family and state, clan and tribe, clan and state, and tribe and state, An example of such conflict is the conscripted soldier who dies in war he did not volunteer for, and which his family opposed. Clearly the dead soldier’s welfare, and that of his family, was subjugated to the welfare of the state.
A great effort is often made by the highest-developed level of human society (in modern times, the state) to align morality issues at all levels of the society (i.e., the individual, the family, the clan, and the tribe). Several techniques may be employed by the state to diminish the moral diversity and influence of families, clans, and tribes, and promote the moral imperative of the state - some of which follow:
1) schools and teachers may be licensed and curriculums closely regulated by the state,
2) police power to enforce sanctions may be reserved exclusively to the state and its local instruments,
3) groups inimical to the state may be discouraged or suppressed,
4) courts of law may not recognize any moral obligations of the individual to family, clan or tribe,
5) an official religious organization may serves as the moral authority of the state (e.g., Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, all have state-sponsored churches, which are considered the moral conscious of the state. Likewise in Islamic states, particular Islamic sects may dominate politically.)
6) where a plethora of diverse religions are allowed to exist, (with inevitable conflicts in their moral codes) the state may discourage their political activity by granting tax exemption for those that refrain, and taxing those that engage, in the politics of the state. (America is the premier example of this tact.)
Family. In the evolutionary scheme of things, the individual and the family are indistinguishable. Both evolved simultaneously – as the individual cannot survive without the nourishment and protection of the family through its infancy and formative years, nor can the family continue-in-kind without the individual maturing to takes the place of family members growing old and dying. The measure of the failure of a family is whether a genealogical line becomes extinct because the offspring do not breed and beget children. The measure of success is in the number of offspring producing more offspring. Thus as regards the family, it would be immoral for an individual child not to have a family and procreate to continue the line. In addition to procreation, the strongest social bonds are formed between family members, and it would be considered immoral (and in most families, unthinkable) not to come to the aid of a family member in distress or under attack from an outsider. In the Arab maxim, it is “I and my brother (or sister) against the clan, tribe, or state.”
Clan. A clan is a collection of related families. As regards procreation in the clan, it is only necessary that a sufficient number of individuals breed and procreate, most preferably between cousins - so that inter-familial boundaries become blurred, and only the clan, as an extended family, is clearly distinguishable. Surplus individuals could be considered expendable, perhaps as warriors in conflicts with other clans, In a clan setting, familial lines can be preserved by limiting the number of expendable individuals from each family line. The social bond between clan members is second only to that between family members. In general, a cohesive clan is stronger, has more resources, and can more easily dominate a strong family. Thus an essential clan moral tenet would be to discourage intra-family marriage (the moral taboo against incest begins its evolution here, not so much as an evil thing, but to weaken intra-family bonds and replace them with intra-clan bonds), and encourage inter-family marriage, so it is “I and my clan against the tribe, or state.”
Tribe, A Tribe is a collection of related clans, and perhaps some unrelated ones being assimilated. It is at the tribal level that more than blood ties begin to be involved in forming inter-clan alliances and tribal loyalties. Tribal rituals and initiation rite begin to shape powerful emotions of belonging that ascend over clan and families ties, An essential tribal moral tenet would be to discourage intra-clan (cousin) marriages, and encourage inter-clan marriages - to promote a greater tribal family, blur clan lines, and still take advantage of the natural affinity family and clan members have for each other. In general, a tribe is stronger, has more resources, and can more easily dominate a strong clan.
State. A state is a collection of tribes, clans and families under a central government, and occupying a defined territory. It is at the state level of social evolution that the rule of written law and government structure is firmly established. Specialization of occupations in commerce, trade, agriculture, industry,
and defense occur. A state is naturally inclined to be strong when the great majority of its citizens are of the same ethnicity and share a common culture and religion, which greatly facilitates a high degree of internal alignment, Strong states may extend their influence far beyond their borders. A state that has a high diversity in ethnicity, culture and/or religion, may find it necessary to impose harsh governance on dissident population factions, and may find it difficult to keep its external focus. In general, a cohesive state is stronger, has more resources, and can more easily dominate a strong tribe or a weaker state. In regards to family, clan, and tribal bonds, the state tends to promote moral tenets that weaken them and strengthen the relation of the individual to the state. However, a state has an additional tool not generally available to tribes, clans and families - the specialization of labor is so advanced in a state that a permanent police force can be sustained, The morality of the state can be (and is) enforced primarily through its police power, and seldom through bloodline affinities.
Nation. A nation is defined herein as a collection of states, tribes, clans and families under a common governance and a defined territory, One may argue whether any real nations presently exist under such a definition, The United States of America might qualify, except that only one of its acquired states, the former Republic of Texas (1836-1845), was truly independent before joining that Union, and then for only a decade (the original 13 colonies confederated immediately and then federated, and thus weren’t true states). The former Union of Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR, 1922-1991) annexed many neighboring states against their will to form an extended nation for a time. The central government of the USSR was brutally dominated by the state of Russia, and the forced union disintegrated catastrophically at the end. The present day European Union (EU) is not a true central government, but its constituent members are true states. Thus the EU may be the beginnings of an emerging nation, if a true central government emerges. The so-called United Nations is more a weak “United Conference of the States of the World,” with a very weak governing body largely ignored at will by the more powerful states pursuing their own interests.
Summary. Morality is behavior that promotes the greater social good over the good of the individual. In general, morality promotes the welfare of all over the welfare of the individual. Moral codes are often promulgated as being decreed by God. And it is indeed that if we accept the definition that God is the embodiment of the social conscience of the state. However, the morality that promotes the unity of the state is not necessarily the same as the morality that promotes the unity of the tribe, clan, or family. The morality of the state must often be imposed by force over contravening moralities favoring the tribe, clan or family. Thus the morality of the state is of necessity rooted the police power of the state.
Morality is the general concept of a higher collective social good. Religion is an embodiment of specific moral tenets couched in terms a moral authority - most often associated with a state.
The moral authority of families and clans is largely unspoken, and often resides in a senior member of the family - a matriarch or a patriarch.
The moral authority of tribes arises from its ethnocentric-oriented god - its community soul. Tribal leadership may claims divine association and revelation with that god, but with few exceptions, the tribal god is not generally perceived or promoted as having omnipotent power. Moral authority in a tribe may lie in a single chieftain or shaman, or within a council of elders. The religion of a tribe is largely unorganized and primitive, but may have some ceremony and pomp.
The moral authority of a state may lie within the state itself, such as when a king is also the high priest. More often it lies in a specialized body such as a state church. The God of the state is often portrayed as having omnipotent power, all-divining wisdom, and infinite reach. Such overreaching portrayals of the state God is characteristic of a state with ambitions of expanding its influence and control over its
neighbors, and assimilating their territory and wealth. State religions tend to be rich in pomp and ceremony.
Families and clans tend to have near-infinite natural lives. Family lines expire here and there for various causes, and some family and clans are extinguished forever through natural calamity, annihilation, and by too many members being rendered unable to procreate (such as taking religious vows of chastity or as castrated slaves). Some families and clans prosper and multiply. Tribes may have lives measured in millenniums, and seldom expire wholesale except in major calamities or annihilation by other tribes or states. A major defense to prevent the total expiration of a family, clan or tribe is for it to be widely distributed and numerous. Another major defense is to be too powerful to be overrun or conquered by another tribe or state,
The moral tenets and religion of a family, clan, or tribe are hard to change, except with constant outside pressure over generations. Often a conquering tribe might annihilate all male survivors of a conquered family, clan or tribe to prevent revenge and rebellion, and to hasten assimilation. In some cases, the entire conquered people have been annihilated - men, women and children. States may discourage assimilated tribes from teaching their own moral tenets, requiring education of the children to be state-sponsored, and encouraging or requiring the assimilated tribe to intermarry with the citizens of the conquering tribe or state.
Tribes that remain nomadic tend to stay tribes, and not evolve into states. Tribes that have fixed population centers and establish cities tend to evolve into states - first as city-states, then as their influence and power grow, into true states with many satellite towns, and villages - and large territories. The city-state tended to be the center of morality and religion, initially with little distinction between church and state function. But as the city state evolved into a true state with a more than one population center, the inevitable bureaucratization of government occurred, separating religion and morality issues into a more formalized religious institution. Being the official guardian of morality and religious ceremony was a post of great power - when a separate position often second only to that of the king.
Monotheism is the belief of one God, generally omnipotent and the creator of the earth and the heavens. Judaism often claims to have been the first monotheistic religion, but early Hebrew texts make it clear that although ancient Hebrews may have had only one god for themselves, they recognized the gods of other tribes and kingdoms. This type of tribal monotheism (henotheism) was likely the prevalent ancient practice for a majority of tribes and primitive states, The concept of a universal god evolves centuries later, most likely as a result of tribes trying to maintain their identity under captivity - as a conquered, but indomitable people having fallen out of favor with the omnipotent god-of-gods. Modern practices on monotheism range from a single, all-knowing, omnipotent creator of the universe (modern Judaism), to a Lord of gods with a host of feudalistic underlings in constant battle against the forces of darkness (Christianity). Islam falls somewhere in between Judaism and Christianity, with one omnipotent God, but legions of angels, spirits (genies) and evil devils, the chief being Satan.
Pantheism. As some city-states evolved into multi-city states by conquering and assimilating surrounding city-states, the religious gods of the conquered city-states may have bee depicted alongside the god of the conquering state as a family of related gods under the benevolent leadership of the conquering god. The history of early society is murky at best, and looking backwards from today, it may seem that the ancient religions were intrinsically pantheistic, while in all probability it was a ather deliberate move to hasten and strengthen the assimilation, allegiance, and alignment of the conquered tribes and city-states. Even today, most so-called monotheistic religions have a host of minor gods and feudalistic courts populated by imaginary angels, devils, and beasts, so they are hardly in-fact rigidly monotheistic.
Social Conscience. The social conscience of the state must reside somewhere physically. The state embodies its moral code in laws very specific to the state, and not, in general, extending beyond its borders. On the other hand a part of that morality, that emergent God embodying the soul of the state, is a larger-reaching social conscience that readies itself for evolutionary transcendence (for example, the evolution of a state to nation) by searching and promoting those moral tenets that serve even a higher social purpose than the unity of the state - reaching for the unity of all mankind - or at least that portion of humanity to be assimilated into its borders. In its higher calling, religion can also be a transcending morality - supporting the unity of the state to a large degree, rooting itself firmly in the past, embracing the present, but also reaching for more universal tenets to prepare for evolutionary transcendence in the future.
Religion sometimes needs to be distinguished from religious institutions. Religion is a general percept like science or philosophy. Science deals with facts, philosophy deals with systems, and religion deals with the “social wisdom” of a decision. In contrast, a religious institution formalizes a particular set of moral tenets.
Many formalized religions have existed for centuries, for example the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Coptic Church of Egypt are examples in Christianity. In Islam, the El Azur Mosque and University has operated more or less unchanged for centuries, and is the extant social conscience of Egypt, Other central mosques in other Islamic states serve similar purposes for their particular state. Some of these churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples have changed little over the centuries, but some have undergone considerable evolution. Many have degenerated into places of meaningless ritual of little value in promoting social unity, or provide socially-wise decisions.
Transcendent Reality fancies itself as the highest level of social conscience. It is the rational part of the social conscience, (whereas other religious institutions are emotional expressions of social conscience.) Transcendent Reality endeavors to measures it progress toward social unity and goals using the tools of science and philosophy, not eschewing them as other religions are prone to do. It uses three guiding principles in judging the acceptability of a moral, ethical or legal tenet. These guiding principles are the tests that each stricture of our moral, ethical and legal codes must meet before being adopted by adherents of Transcendent Reality:
Survival - as an individual, family, paradigm, religion, species, life form,
Continuance-in-kind - through physical reproduction of new generations of humans, and through teaching our paradigm to each new generation,
Prosperity - for ourselves, as an individual and as a group.
Survival. We mean by survival that we continue to exist until we can continue our kind - physically through our children, philosophically through institutions of learning, and religiously through our house of worship. We must survive until we have continued our kind, and until we have improved our collective prosperity for the next generation. If a tenet does not promote our survival, it should not be followed,
The keys to survival, to continue to exist, are knowledge, wisdom, choice, and action.
· Knowledge comes through our scientific investigations. We must have truth and knowledge - about our selves and about our environment - before we can be wise.
· Wisdom comes from our philosophical models accurately mirroring systems in reality. We must have realistic and accurate models to predict outcomes from optional scenarios, and we must have proved those models through experiment and experience.
· Choice comes from our religious values and moral principles. We always have options. We must evaluate our options in light of our values and principles so that we choose those most beneficial to us, or in some cases those least harmful.
· Action comes from our conviction that our knowledge, wisdom, and choice are considered and appropriate. We must act, if our knowledge, wisdom, and choice are to be useful to us.
Continuance-in-kind. We mean by continuance-in-kind two things. First, that we replicate our self physically by having children, and second, that we pass our paradigm on to our children and our members. Each new generation must receive all that the knowledge and wisdom we have gained, and be charged to add to it. Each new generation must be charged to do their part to carry our seed and our paradigm to the stars and galaxies. If a tenet does not promote our continuance-in-kind, it should not be followed.
Prosperity. We mean by prosperity the improvement of our environment to contain us comfortably, protect us from adversity and calamity, and promote our paradigm. We mean to create "heaven" by continually improving our environment with each new generation. If a tenet does not promote our prosperity, it should not be followed.
Who makes the judgment that a tenet does or does not meet the test? And what are the specific tests?
Those are profound and difficult questions to answer. Issues of morality and ethics permeate law, but not all ethical or moral issues are codified into law. In general, the state sets definitions, procedures, sanctions – and decides issues of law for which it considers it has an overriding interest. The degree which a state intercedes in an individual’s or group’s affairs and actions vary considerably between states - some being extremely intrusive and overbearing in all aspects of life, and others being very minimally involved. Complicating the issue at law, is that many laws may be considered immoral or unethical by some individuals or groups. A state generally employs police power to enforce its laws.
For moral and ethical issues not addressed by law, or where considerable discretion has been left to the public, specific groups may set definitions, procedures, sanctions - and decide issues of association and contract between individuals or groups - providing that such decisions and/or sanctions do not violate or usurp matters reserved solely to the state.
Many issues of ethics, especially business affairs, are left to the parties involved, with options to bring grievances or disputes before a court of law if one or more of the parties. Generally, each individual or group is free to accept or reject the conditions of association mutually promulgated.
For moral and ethical issues not addressed by the state or by a group, the individual is free to make the determination and final judgment - and reap the reward or suffer the punishment falling out of the natural consequences of his decision.
Transcendent Reality judges moral tenets on how they hasten the 7th Transcendence -to evolve GOD.
Related Issues: For further discussion, see Ethics, Laws and Sexual Morality.