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The Paradise Perspective: Commentary from a Free and Compassionate Alternate Reality Volume 2, Number 7 Core Values by Glen Allport Exclusive to STR February
25, 2008 There
are only a few universal core
values required for a healthy life and a healthy society, yet there
are hundreds of religious sects and political movements and parties. The
blizzard of rules, beliefs, supernatural storylines, government-as-parent
schemes, god-as-parent fantasies, and all the rest of the sometimes
beautiful, sometimes odd, sometimes horrifying cultural add-ons that grow
up around political and religious groups of every stripe are for the most
part not fundamental and are too-often at odds with healthy values. Love
and freedom – including love and freedom for
children specifically – form the core of every healthy social
structure and religion. But even if the core values are healthy, those
values may become diluted, hidden, and corrupted by an overgrowth of other
material. Sometimes this material is added to hijack the religion or the
social/political structure for personal or political gain; sometimes the
material is added by people wanting formal procedures or other ways to
celebrate the core values. Even when not in conflict with healthy core
values, the sheer volume of this added material can obscure the whole
point of the exercise: to foster love and freedom, especially for the young. Everything
worthwhile in life flows from and requires those two connected qualities
– and as even the ancients knew, early life shapes
adult character, behavior, and experience.(1)
-
- - - - Christianity
– by far the largest religion in the West, and among the largest
religions worldwide – is typical of systems built around a core of
healthy values but drowning in other material, not all of it positive. The
actual teachings of the founder are only a small fraction of the text in
the Christian Bible, for instance, and this is one reason that people
calling themselves "Christian" can mean almost anything by that
word. There is a long history of Christian sects fighting each other (the Catholic/Protestant
conflict in Ireland, for instance) and even literally going to war
with other religions (most famously in the Crusades),
something Jesus neither did nor
told his followers to do. Such violence directly contradicts
Jesus' teachings on love, yet people find (or distort) other material
in the Bible to support religious violence. The admonition to love one another is often described as Jesus' central teaching, and with good reason.(2) Because one cannot love another by enslaving them – because tyranny
and love are always at odds – Jesus' teachings in favor of love must
also be seen as in favor of freedom, something his actions
support as well. Another
example: Jesus was clear and actually quite forceful about the need to treat children well and to not offend
children; indeed, Jesus saw children
as examples for adults, not the other way around.(3) You would expect that Christians would be famous for treating
children warmly and lovingly, and for striving to learn from children. You
would expect Christians to not coerce children but rather to protect
children from coercion. Some
Christians do fit that description, but many are at odds with Jesus'
teachings on this important issue. Other elements in the Bible are often
used (in many cases, inaccurately) as justification for mistreatment of
children. A
third teaching by Jesus strongly supports the previous two. The teaching
is that this world is
important, to such an extent that "the These
three teachings are incredibly positive and healthy, and (with minor
re-wording) can be accepted and followed regardless of whether one
believes in the supernatural elements of this or any religion. Love for
others, compassionate treatment and respect for children, and the
understanding that this world
(including the experience within each one of us) is important regardless
of any world beyond – these things would seem undeniably healthy and
positive. Imagine
a short, simple list of
real-world, non-supernatural core values and beliefs that any
healthy, non-aggressive group could acknowledge and agree to live by, no
matter what else they might also believe or practice. Love
for others, including respecting
others instead of coercing them, is the absolute
minimum for such a list. Loving, compassionate treatment of children
is required for them to grow into emotionally healthy adults capable of
love; hence, a group must treat children well if it expects positive
long-term results. Finally, even if one believes in an afterlife, this
life and this world must not be slighted or denied. The
Paradise Perspective
will return on March 10. -
- - - - Notes: (1)
Modern science uses fancier language: humans (and other complex systems)
are sensitively
dependent upon early conditions.
This is usually phrased as "sensitive dependence on initial conditions" but in many cases "initial" is
impossible to know in any practical sense. Example: what is the initial
condition for a human being? Conception? How about previous conditions and
events for the parents, which created the biochemical environment in which
the egg and the sperm were created and which determine much about the
environment in the mother's womb during her pregnancy? Even events that
happened to the grandparents of the new child can affect that new life –
childhood trauma
can make an adult neurotic in various ways, which then impacts that
person's offspring, and so on for generations
– so what is the initial
condition here? In any case, early events – not merely at the initial
instant, assuming there is one – typically have far more powerful
effects than do events that occur later in the evolution of a complex
system. 13:34
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another. 18:1
At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 18:2
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of
them, 18:3
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 18:4
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 18:5
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 18:6
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it
were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that
he were drowned in the depth of the sea. --
also -- Mark:
(4)
Luke: It
is remarkable how little weight Jesus’ own words on this subject seem to
have in the Christian community; neither the New Advent Online Catholic
Encyclopedia nor the Wikipedia article on heaven, for instance, reference
Luke 17:21 when specifically discussing the location of heaven (which the
Bible generally treats as being the kingdom of God; the terms are often
described by scholars as interchangeable). Nor did searches for “where
is the Glen Allport is the author of The Paradise Paradigm: On Creating A World of Compassion, Freedom, and Prosperity and maintains paradise-paradigm.net. This is one in a series of columns on the human condition.
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