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July 21, 2006 In this article I'm not arguing that secular humanism IS a modern scourge. I argue that people can consider that secular humanism might be a modern scourge. When an intelligent, logical, and quite articulate secular humanist promotes the idea that killing unborn babies is okay, one can argue that rather than simply legalizing abortion it is better to consider individual cases. Under certain relatively rare circumstances, it is probably better to terminate the life of the fetus. In many cases, however, it is not right to kill the fetus. The problem is, a professional working scientist was not trained at the university to be a professional working moralist. The university turns out narrowly educated "degreed" specialists. Yes, this IS a problem. I am neither a professional scientist nor a professional moralist, but I think I see the main issue. I was disillusioned by science as a student, even though I made very high grades in science and I majored in Biology and graduated magna cum laude. There was just something MISSING in many of the scientists I knew. Articulating this puzzle piece, however, was totally beyond me at the time. Now it has sortof come up again, in the U-K issue between Pat Hurley and Fred Smith over abortion. I am sure both these intelligent and articulate men are sincere and they mean well. But how will they settle with each other? What will de-escalate the tension and conflict they each feel towards the other? Surely Fred is glad that as a fetus he didn't get aborted. I am glad that as a fetus I didn't get aborted. I see men shooting and killing each other in war (or in verbal skirmishes) and I think jeeez these men are CRAZY. How can men fail to be empathetic? What trains boys so that they are not empathetic? Well, the answer is, their culture, of course. Consequently I have spent years studying empathy and the yogic sense that brings more and more empathy. So how do you culture boys to be loving and caring? This seems to me to be important. Caring and loving man won't just go around f-cking women and leaving them to care for the baby. How is a young woman going to cope with this lot, if no social organization (such as the Church) is going to take the woman in and help her make a HOME? Does the Church put its money where its mouth is? So how does a culture teach boys to be thoughtful, kind, empathetic, and provident? This is the big issue. A soldier is trained to kill the enemy and often soldiers kill civilians and rape women. History shows this to be the case. The science of war advances with technology. What about the ethics and morality of war? What about the ethics and morality of boyhood soon to become manhood? Without a doubt war is a modern scourge. Modern sci-tech war is even a worse scourge than primitive war. Witness the scourge of gas warfare, atomic warfare, and biochemical warfare. Modern people are numbed by numbers. The pun is not funny. Television war and cinema war numbs even children as well. Flicks are not the real thing. The God-Idea of Christ is a forgiving Idea. Forgiveness, mercy, and kindness are ideas that are taught about Christ. Before Christ the Idea of God was a Man of War. Other cultures promote some different Idea of God. In arguing against the Idea of God, the secular humanists dig a hole. Nature abhors a vacuum and so something rushes in to fill the hole of secular humanism. This can make a secular humanist very callous. I encountered quite a few of these persons when I was a student of biology. Over the years this unkindness drove me further and further away from science. Now I try to see from both sides, and get to the bottom of the disconnect between the genius of science and the genius of ethics. Basically, I found in school that many students simply had no training in putting themselves in the position of the other fellow. That is to say, for example, how it would feel to be cut in half for some doctor could get his PhD degree or write some scientific article and thereby get more respect from his peers. I recall decades ago reading about a certain scientist who was very curious about wasps and so he cut off their abdomens to see what they would do. No, this wasn't a mean kid with a razor blade. This was a professional scientist! If you want, you can find similar experiments going on with more human-like critters in professional laboratories. There was just no empathy in those guys. So does that make secular humanists "the good guys" like Fred Smith claims? I personally am puzzled. I was puzzled at age twenty and I am still puzzled at age sixty-six. How can humanists so viciously attack the teachings of Christ the way they do? On the other hand, how can the Catholic Church so attack abortion without creating a more kind and merciful society of Christ? Goodness knows, the Catholic Church still has gobs of land and gobs of money. There are lots of homeless men and women who would want to help participate in doing the good work of helping other people and helping themselves both. The problem is that the kindness of Christ has never been understood. Even if the stories about Christ are all made up, they are still stories about what humans MIGHT be like. Moreover, the fact is that Saint Francis, Vincent van Gogh and scores of other individuals have lived in "imitation of Christ." This proves that humanity CAN be transformed. The experiments have already been run. What messes people up is that they want to follow the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. I study under a professional philosopher who argues that in each case of ethics and morality one has to consider each individual case. The legalists try to draw up some general law that everyone is supposed to follow. This was the case in Moses "the lawgiver." Moses laid down some commandments and there were severe punishments for anyone who didn't live by the letter of the law. Mohammed followed a similar pattern. Christ came and taught forgiveness and mercy and kindness. He taught about the Spirit. But where is that Spirit now? In our sci-tech age, where is that Spirit burning brightest? Even if there isn't any science of Spirit yet, folks have just got to keep the candle burning. Don't let the spark of life go out. Don't abort your empathetic "Christ" self. Dare to FEEL compassion, and to QUESTION different points of view. ------------ About the author: John L. Waters is an amateur psychologist and independent researcher on self-healing, integration, and problem-solving. John has created art, music and songs, prose and poetry, and helped people solve a difficult problem. For more information, read: John's letters of recommendation: http://members.tripod.com/johnlwaters/recommendations about John's self-healing and integration: http://members.tripod.com/johnlwaters/index.html about John's independent research: http://www.humboldt.edu/~jlw47/index.html about John's seeking an agent or a publisher: http://www.writers.net/writers/39295 Email: blueguntwo@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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