Ths I Believe - My Ethics

I believe that the universe, while having a natural order, has no inherent moral order. I believe that human nature can be seen as good or evil with ample evidence for either doctrine. I believe that there is no first principle that can be known, no God we can prove, no Platonic absolute forms which inform our soul or our ethics. We are, in one sense, alone in the universe - left adrift and without guidance. In the end, I believe that the soul of the universe is essentially amoral in any sort of human sense.

So in the end, without guidance, there is only existential choice...there is only the Sisyphean task of creating the meaning of our lives. Consequently, I believe that the dignity of human consciousness derives from our continued perseverance in endeavors for which the universe affords no foothold of encouragement. As human beings, our fundamental nature is to aspire - to create meaning where none exists apart from our efforts. These acts of aspiration are essential to our humanity.

We chose to take a moral stand when there is no reason given by the universe for us to do so.
By my very existence, I have no choice but to plant a stake in the ground - that is predestined from the moment I was born. But what is not predestined is my choice as to where to plant that stake. We all chose a morality that is not required of us and so, in the end, our moral self is an expression of our aspiration - built on the slenderest of threads.

Because I must plant my stake, I chose to believe certain things...not because I can prove them but because I aspire for them to be true. I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings. There is no compelling evidence to prove that my belief is rational. Just so, neither is there evidence to refute it. And if I chose to believe that all human life has value, then justice, equity and compassion become my watchwords and the values I aspire to live by. Because I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of human life, I also believe in the importance of community for the future of humanity. Salvation lies not solely in individual experience, but in the experience of the community B in the connections of human beings to one another and to the universe as a whole. All people are islands; while they are born from another, they die alone. Yet in community we breach the isolation of personal existence and have the opportunity to discover the inherent worth and dignity of the other. In this is love.

I believe that each person is responsible for finding truth and meaning, yet I believe that we have much to learn from those who have come before and those who we journey with today. Wise teachers -- Siddhartha Gautama, Hillel, Jesus, Mohammed, Lao-Tsu, Gandhi and others -- have all aspired, and by their aspirations, inform and inspire me. In this is hope.

I believe in the interconnected web of all existence of which we are a part. Morality does not exist. Yet we aspire to morality and in the human quest we aspire to give evidence to the divine we cannot prove in that mystery of the web of life. Here lies faith.

Finally, I believe that the universe is evolving and that we are at the tip of that process with respect to consciousness on our planet. While the universe is impersonal and fundamentally amoral, there is a development of ever increasing levels of complexity that are drawing humanity to deeper and more complex levels of consciousness. Along with those structures of consciousness there evolves increasing dimensions of care and concern. These dimensions are not moral imperatives in any classical sense, but rather are the epiphenomena of the very nature of human consciousness and he cultural structures it creates. Thus, while the universe offers no foothold of encouragement in our decision to act with deeper compassion, it is drawing humanity in that direction. This increase in the capacity for understanding, holding, being present to and loving the emergence is, it seems, close to the heart of humanity’s evolutionary imperative.

Faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love for it is in love that our aspirations become flesh.

I believe in these ethics, this morality, not by reason, but because in aspiring to them, I become part of the realization of that greater human endeavor. And in that sense we are not alone in the universe. I chose these ethics because of that distant human dream, that by our consciousness, we make a tiny corner of the universe a moral place after all and in that space god becomes real.

© 2007. Matthew Wesley. All rights reserved.