There is a lot of talk these days of morals in a divisive light. “Those are your morals,” or “That’s a moral issue,” or “Those aren’t my morals.” By using such phrases, the speaker distances themselves from an issue that another sees as intrinsically right or wrong.

Standard definitions for morality refer include “concern with the distinction between good and evil or right and wrong; right or good conduct” or “a study of action (right and wrong).” All of them seem to categorize the word as some sort of study, or some sort of code as defined by an authority.

Let’s consider another definition of morality – the relation of an action to one’s intended end.

There – no good, no evil, no right or wrong. Morality is simply a reckoning to one’s end.

Let’s consider a neutral example. A sports team works toward a common goal. In soccer, this is quite literal – the object is to put the ball into the opponent’s goal as often as possible, and to keep it out of your own. When a player is directing the ball toward the opposing team’s goal, his efforts and actions are moral. If, however, he intentionally kicks the ball into his team’s own goal, he has betrayed his team’s end and committed an immoral act.

This example may seem utilitarian, and even advocate the end justifying any means as moral. That is because of the simplicity of the example. In life, there may be overlapping ends to consider, such as one’s role in one’s family, one’s duty to country, and one’s responsibility as a human being. Such overlapping duties can lead to conflict in decision making, but by determining what is the highest priority, one can decide which edicts to obey and which to disobey, and when it is right to do so.

Perhaps I have gotten a bit ahead of myself here as we have not gone into prioritizing one’s duties and responsibilities, or our ends and purpose individually and as a whole.

However, it is important to keep this definition of morality in mind when you meet people who toss out phrases about morality as something that they disagree with others about. If they say their morality or moral code differs from you, there is little doubt that is true; but what they may not realize is that such differences in views on what is right or wrong stem from deep differences in purpose, end, and philosophical point of view – be careful of such persons.

It should also be noted that those who wish to be or claim to be amoral do exist as well; those who have no established moral code or even deny the existence that such codes can exist. They are to be feared, as Jack London observed, as wolves amongst men.

Technorati Tags: morality, evil, good, right and wrong, human, ethics, morals

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If adoped, such ideas would make Detroit’s woes worse, but as Wired magazine reports, it’s actually better for the environment to buy a used car than to buy a hybrid.

The basis is that it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to manufacture a new hybrid car – equal to 1,000 gallons of gas. Buy buying a used car, you’re not empowering automakers to keep cranking out more cars when we’ve got lots of used ones already on the road and in used dealer lots. Isn’t “Reuse” one of the Three Rs of conservation?

Perhaps we should go one step further and start actively retrofitting exisiting cars with new technology – biodiesel, hybrid, and so forth.

Here’s hoping that Johnathan Goodwin (with his 100mpg Lincoln Continental and 60mpg Hummer) and other talented and forward-thinking mechanics are the new Henry Fords.

Technorati Tags: mpg, environment, efficiency, hybrid cars

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I’ve not read through everthing on this site, but a friend of mine sent me the link long ago and it looks to be at least an interesting and thought-provoking resource:

The Meaning of Life

Tags: The Meaning of Life

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Heck, who doesn’t want an easy way to make money?

The Church of Man doesn’t pay well – in fact, at the moment it’s a hole into which I pour money. So, I thought I’d share an idea for those of you, like me, have obligations requiring money but not much time to make more.

Paid Surveys Online is offering a package that will help you locate paying surveys where you can not only share your opinion and shape the way businesses and organizations make decisions, but get paid to do so! Of course, it usually pays to get in on these as soon as possible to have an edge on those who hear about this after you, so find out more today!

Tags: make money, time, Paid Surveys Online, get paid

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Recent news of Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s struggle with doubt towards the end of her life has prompted me to visit one of the more important foundations of the Church of Man.

Faith and science have been pitted against each other many times. While there is sometimes, maybe even often, a conflict between the two I am not convinced that one abolishes the need for the other.

Part of the problem today is that faith is construed as an idea that one believes in a supernatural deity. In that sense, it has become “the other f-word” in certain circles, notably the scientific extremists who deny any possibility of the supernatural.

What then is faith? Faith is persistence despite evidence that your position might be incorrect. Sure, it is easy to apply it to beliefs in the supernatural, but in reality we all express faith. We can not empirically prove every premise upon which we act. For example, we do not know for sure that the traffic light has malfunctioned and that the cross-traffic at an intersection might suddenly get the green light at the same time we do, but we make a reasonable assumption. That is a small act of faith in the mechanism. What might be a larger leap of faith is assuming that someone won’t run the red light as you cross the intersection. If’ you’ve ever been in that kind of car accident, you know what I mean when I say it becomes quite a large act of faith in your fellow man to cross those intersections in the weeks and months following such a collision.

A contrarian example of commonplace faith can be found in the fictional television character Dr. Gregory House. House is a devout believer in science, who scoffs at the religious, even non-spiritual “philosophical,” positions of others. Yet time and again, in the face of the facts and evidence, he persists in his belief that a patient is not yet cured, that things are not what they appear, and that someone else’s interpretation or diagnosis is wrong and his is right, even when he can not support is position on facts or evidence. In a sense, Dr. House is an example of a man of faith who scorns the very idea of faith in a spiritual sense.

Another common misconception is that faith is the opposite of doubt. I’ve seen this idea surfacing lately in discussions about Mother Teresa. Faith is persistence – therefore for faith to be present there must be something to persist against. The relationship between faith and doubt is very much the same as the relationship between courage and fear. In order to have courage, or to show courage, one must overcome fear. If there is nothing to fear, there cannot be courage. There’s a quote from the movie Angus, in which it is said that Superman cannot be brave, for in being indestructible he has nothing to fear. Without fear, he cannot have courage.

A knight does not charge forth courageously to slay a common rabbit, as he has nothing to fear from the rabbit. However, if he is afraid of the dark, then venturing into a dark cave to rescue a maiden is an act of courage – even if there is no dragon there to slay. If a soldier is afraid, he is not called a coward. If he flees the battle, if he retreats, if he lets his fear paralyze him into inaction, his actions are referred to as cowardly. His persistence, despite his fear, is the mark of courage.

Faith works in the same way. If you are sure of something, you can not claim to have faith in it. If you doubt something, you have not lost your faith. If you abandon your position or your belief, then you have lost your faith. But if you persist, even as you doubt what you are doing is for the right reason, then your faith is not weak, it is being tested and is still strong.

What can we derive from this? Consider Mother Teresa. Did she really “lose” her faith if she thought late in life that maybe God didn’t exist, that maybe all she had done and was doing was for nothing?

And what of a person who claims their faith is unshakable, that they “know for certain” some supernatural idea is correct? Can they really have faith, and is it really strong if it is without a doubt?

And while a church, like the Church of Man, might be godless, might it still be a community of faith?

Tags: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, doubt, Church of Man, Faith, science, supernatural, act of faith, Dr. Gregory House, spiritual, Mother Teresa, courage, fear, godless

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“A Wall of Separation between Church and State” aka “Separation of Church and State” A phrase so common these days it has become a cliche. It is generally accepted that this statement from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association means that the religion should be kept out of politics.

In the interests of the whole of a nation, this is a proper opinion. However, it is my great fear that the wall of separation has been seen as a semi-permeable wall; that is, it is seen as unbreachable by Church but not by the State.

To give an example, I was advised of a special meeting of the Evesham Townsip Board of Education tonight in Marlton, NJ. A group of parents are planning to attend the meeting to speak out about compulsory education on sexual orientation and transgenderism which is contrary to their religious faith and beliefs. They fear a repeat of a ruling in Massachusetts which stated that such a program was required for children as young as kindergardners, and that parents had no option to opt out.

When the Danbury Baptist Association wrote President Jefferson in October of 1801, they expressed concern: (source)

Our Sentiments are uniformly on the side of Religious Liberty – That religion is at all times and places a matter between God and Individuals – That no man ought to suffer in Name, person or effects on account of his religious Opinions – That the legitimate Power of Civil Government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor.

To which Jefferson replied:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

If this ruling is any indication, the state of Massachusetts no longer adheres to this idea that an individual is answerable only to his God, and that in matters of their faith they are accountable to no one else, or to the idea that ‘legitimate’ powers of government are limited to actions and not opinions. It has been made clear that no opinion is acceptable save for the opinion to be taught in MA schools regarding sexual orientation, and failure to comply will result in the usual truancy charges which I believe still include prison for the parents.

The nightmare the Danbury Baptists feared – that someone might “suffer in Name, person or effects on account of his religious Opinions” has come true in Massachusetts in a country where the words that were meant to reassure them are repeated ad nausem “separation of Church and State.”

I can only imagine that:

1) The judge in the case saw, as many have, that the wall of separation may be breached by the State to legislate religious opinion, but that religious opinion may not influence the State.

2) That the said judge saw the religious opinions of the parents as accountable to him, and must have some delusion of being a god to whom an founding father thought reckoning of such opinions is due.

Either way, the ruling is blasphemous – which coming from an agnostic church is a pretty severe criticism.

While the Church of Man has no specific teachings on the subject matter to be taught, it is concerned when it comes to the rights of individuals to practice their religious freedom – including the right to hold moral opinions for which they are not answerable to any government representative or body. Therefore, the Church of Man wishes the parents involved at the Board of Education meeting in Marlton tonight the very best wishes in preserving their faith and convictions from the interference of their government.

Tags: Separation between Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Thomas Jefferson, Danbury Baptist Association, religion, politics, Board of Education, education, Religious Liberty, God, Massachusetts, Church, State, moral opinions, Church of Man

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Found this story during my random browsing for something completely different.

For those of you who don’t know about EVE Online (as I did an hour ago) it’s a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game based around exploration, colonization, and conflict in a new galaxy. Kind of like starting over (allusions to Eve and Eden are found in the story background).

So, with real human players having a fresh start in a new galaxy, what happened? According to the Hilmar Petursson, CEO of Crowd Control Productions, the company that developed EVE:

It turned out, in the first few months of EVE that players of different nationalities were banding together in specific areas of space. The Scandinavians in one area, next to the Russians (who had hacked the game so they could chat in Cyrillic script, and no-one else could understand them). The Americans were across the other side of the galaxy and the French were in between The Scandinavians and Americans. All arranged around the pocket of neutral territory known as Empire Space.

Now here’s how it went: The Russians were highly organised and powerful in battle and were attacking the Scandinavians. By rights they should have wiped them out fairly quickly but things descended into a war of attrition lasting for a couple of months. This was because the Americans, whilst protesting their neutrality, were ploughing their considerable production capabilities into supplying the Scandinavians with ships and material. Through some audacious espionage, the Russians figured this out and hired the French to cut off the supply lines from the Americans to the Scandinavians. The Scandinavians quickly folded and the Russians were victorious.

Involved in all this was a combination of political manoeuvring, subterfuge and economics which wasn’t built into the software, having evolved out of the way people played the game. This was even before alot of the mechanics for alliances and other political shenanigans was built into the game.

What a lot we are! I seriously doubt with a fresh start we would b able to avoid the atrocities of our collective past.

Tags: EVE Online, Massively Multiplayer Online, MMO, human, players, political, subterfuge, political shenanigans

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Just got around to watching Premonition starring Sandra Bullock with my wife. In short, one of the most disappointing movies I’ve seen..ever.

I had high hopes for this movie; had it been a summer blockbuster action movie or a kids movie I would have looked past the script problems and attempt to throw a thought-provoking moral in at the last 30 minutes of the film. There was a great concept, a great cast, and admittedly great work throughout most of the movie.

For comparison, the other movies I consider great disappointments are Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man’s Chest (I was one of many that did not know it was just a trailer for the third movie, and VGcats captured my sentiments and emotions well) and Superman Returns (not sure what storyline they were using, but it didn’t draw from the comics, the other movies, or anything. It was like watching a sequel to a Superman movie that had never been made, and very much wishing you had watched them in order.)

What was wrong with Premonition? The biggest obstacle to my enjoyment was the biggest, most amateurish continuity issue I’ve ever seen. In many movies, there might be a bandage that in one scene is on an actor’s right side of his face, but in the next it’s on his left. It happens. In Premonition, a little girl get badly hurt and scarred on Tuesday, still has those scars on Wednesday, is miraculously untouched on Thursday, but scarred again on Friday and Saturday. How the heck do you miss continuity on a major plot point like that?

But to partially redeem the movie, there is an important point made (perhaps too late in the plot) about nature abhorring a vacuum – even a spiritual one. It is made clear that belief does not have to be in God, it can be in anything – even hope and love. Loss of even that belief can lead to disaster.

For Church of Man readers, the lesson is twofold: Don’t think that belief has to be in a deity, and don’t try to live life without faith or belief is something. What then should we believe? Let’s figure that out…

Tags: Premonition, Sandra Bullock, movie

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Heard news of a cultural/spiritual/philosophical crossover today in the form of a book entitled “The Way of The Christian Samurai: Reflections for Servant-Warriors of Christ” Stuck with me as I’ve been on a bit of a “samurai” bent lately, and have been itching to re-watch Seven Samurai.

The gist of the book seems to be the identifying of the modern Christian with the samurai of Japan; both are, in the ideal, wholly and fully devoted to their masters, willing even to give their life for the one they serve.

Of course, some samurai were stuck-up, judgmental snobs, and the same can be said for an all-too many modern Christians as well.

(Side note: yes, I have had a lot of Christian themed info lately. A little factoid – that is my personal background so I’m more versed in it than other world religions.)

Tags: spiritual, Christian Samurai, Seven Samurai, Christian, samurai, Japan

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A few of the quotes on rotation under our banner, as well as some things you will find in-post on the Church of Man, come from Switchfoot’s lead singer/songwriter Jon Foreman. I got an email today from Jon that they are now independent, having severed ties with Columbia.

I’ve been following Switchfoot since I played their first album, “Legend of Chin” to death on cassette in a couple of weeks. (Yes folks, that was quite a while before they did about half the soundtrack for “A Walk to Remember“) They’re the only band that I’ve purchased every single album on or about release day.

For me, it’s the lyrics that make Switchfoot worth coming back too time and again.

A choice few words from their latest album, “Oh Gravity!”

So a spark ignites
In time and space
To make it through this human race
You fight and crawl your way back home
But you’re running the wrong way

If we only got one try
If we’ve only got one life
If time was never on our side
Before I die I want to burn out bright
-Burn Out Bright

Congrats to Jon and the band.

Tags: Jon Foreman, independent, Switchfoot, human race

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