Four Essential Points of World Religions and Philosophy

William O'Meara (c) Copyright, 1997

Edwin A. Burtt in his book, Man Seeks the Divine, has identified four key points of world religion and philosophy:

Point 1: Universal Moral Ideal

Early religious peoples, prior to the development of civilization, tended to identify their sense of moral good within their own community. One had as a member of the tribe an obligation to other members of the tribe, but not to people outside the tribe. One could harm an individual outside the tribe but have no moral problem with such an action. but when the world religions and philosophers conceive of all human beings as belonging to the same community, then a sense of moral obligation develops to all human beings.

The commitment to the examined way of life is one way of realizing that all human beings potentially belong to the same human community. Conceive of the following situation:

Point 2: One God and the World as a Cosmos

Just as early religious peoples did not tend to conceive of a universal moral ideal, but of different ideals and obligations for each different tribe, so also they did not tend to have only one Divine Reality, but to have many gods and goddesses. Each tribe had its own divine realities that protected it and which the tribe could pray to in its conflicts with other peoples and their deities. Just as there was conflict amongst the peoples of the earth, so there was conflict amongst the divinities. These divinities could be cruel and vindictive, apparently acting arbitrarily and capriciously in storms and thunderbolts to harm people. People could be in chaos and conflict; the forces of nature could be in chaos and conflict; and the divinities could be in chaos and conflict.

However, when the commitment to the examined way of life has lead to a universal moral ideal, world religions and philosophers tend to think of Deity as only One. For if morality ultimately comes from divine inspiration or command and there should be only one universal moral ideal, then since morality is one, Deity should ultimately be one. Euripedes, the Greek dramatist has expressed very well, the essential connection between universal morality and belief in one God. he wrote: "If the gods do aught that is base, then they are not gods." The Divine Reality which is the inspiring source of universal moral ideals for all humanity cannot be a source of capricious, arbitrary, and vindictive actions against humanity. for such actions are essentially immoral. For God, to be logically consistent with the universal morals that God inspires, must be conceived to act in accord with those very same moral ideals.

Those students who are atheists or agnostics could see point two in another light. A commitment to the examined way of life has lead to the modern sciences. Once, we see the world with the scientific viewpoint, we assume that the world as a whole follows universal and orderly laws of nature which are in principle predictable. This fundamental assumption of Galileo and Newton has been verfied by the discovery of so many scientific laws of nature, in astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, and geology. So, when we look beyond mere sense observations of apparently random, arbitrary, and unpredictable events in nature such as an eclipse of the sun and examin these events rationally, then we no longer have to attribute these events to arbitrary and capricious deities in conflict with each other and humanity. We have realized in the examined way of life that nature is an orderly whole which follows universal laws of nature and that even earthquakes, solar eclipses, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and volcanic eruptions all occur in accord with the laws of nature and can be rationally understood and not feared as actions of a capricious and unpredictable denizen of deities.

Point 3: Discovery of Spiritual Selfhood

Early religious peoples tended to identify the self with the physical breath. When an individual could no longer breathe, the life force of breath had departed. There tends to be no clear sense of personal immortality. As in early Greek thought as in the Illiad and the Odyssey, the self survives in some faint form as a shadow of its former self and are called shades. The word, spirit, is originally from the Latin word spirare which means to breathe. But the word, spirit, now has the connotation of the principle of conscious life which animates the body and departs from the body when death occurs to join with the other spirits united with the Divine Spirit. How did this change develop?

One key focus in Greek philosophy was Socrates who brought about a significant transformation of Greek thought with his emphasis upon self-knowledge. The self or spirit was the principle of conscious life which made the commitment to the examined way of life and which was morally responsible for one's actions. Socrates conceived of this principle of examination and responsibility as leading the indivudal to a respect for all human beings because all human beings shared this same potentiality for examination and responsibility. This universal community of all humanity was an ideal inspired by the One Divine Reality that also inspired Socratres to live the examined way of life. Since Socrates is willing to die for the value he lives for, somehow this center of his being, his spirit, probably lives on in union with other spirits in union with the divine. At the end of his trial, he says he has no fear of death because death is either an eternal sleep or an eternal union with the realm of spirits. If it is a union with the realm of spirits, then Socratyes sees himself as continuing to live that same life of self-examination and moral responsibility in dialogues with the great heroes of Greek civilization. He sees himself examining these great heroes and continuing to grow in wisdom through dialogue. In the Phaedo, a dialogue about death and immortality of the soul based on a conversation which Socrates and his friends held on the day of his execution, socrates again says that the philosopher should have no fear of death since the philosopher has always been trying to get away from the senses ands the emotions and to live the examined way of life. This examined way of life has lead him to universal values which transcend human mortality and which are derived from the One Divine Reality.

Because a clear realization of the distinction between the soul and the body has now developed, the virtue of sincerity becomes more important in the overall table of virtues. For one's external actions and words, whether they are of friendship or justice or kindness or consideration, must now not be mere external actions but must be actions which flow sincerely from the principle of conscious throught and moral choice.

Point 4: Spiritual Happiness for Humanity

Whereas early religious peoples tended to think of human happiness as focused upon the desires of the body, world religions and philosophers tend to think of true happiness as consisting in a transformation of bodily desires and actions in accord with the examined way of life and the first three points:

One can sustain any difficulties in body, even death, because one's true happiness is to be found in the spiritual life of the examined way of life and of moral responsibility. Living in accord with the Divine inspiuration for the examined way of life lead Socrates to both a deep inner peace and a continuing growth in his life. What more could anyone wish?

William O'Meara's World of Philosophy and Religion

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at omearawm@jmu.edu

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