Leo Volont
Registered Senior Member
Apology For Religious Histories
I can’t remember the name of the wise author who wrote of the great and good men of the past, that their virtues were their own, but their vices were those of their times. Their moral innovations came from a special light that shone from within them, but what we now see as their moral failures was not anything that came below what was considered ordinary and acceptable behavior for their times and in their societies. Moral Intuition and Reflection can only go so far in convincing even the bravest moral pioneer that he alone is right and all his contemporaries wrong. Also, there may have been instances where some unique individuals in the Past have lived entirely independent of the influence of their societies and conducted their lives in the most pristine goodness. But whether perceived as Saints or Insane, they must have been so very different from everybody else of their times that it must have been thought impossible to emulate them, and their influence on the Moral Development of the Societies minimal because it was so incomprehensible.
Today, it is a favorite argument of Atheists that the Religious Leaders, Saints, and Prophets of the past did not evince the same high moral standards by which we measure ourselves today. We should understand, however, that it is the cumulative moral efforts of these very people that have given us these high moral standards by which we now criticize them. We must also take into consideration that it is the inactive, secluded, retired and demur Intellectuals who seem to expect the Highest Moral Standards from those who live active lives. Those who live Active Social and Political lives, because they are lead into choices, some of which present moral dilemmas, must sometimes choose between evils, where the best that can be expected is that they choose the lesser of evils. But they who would insist upon a bitter and spiteful perfection, see only that evil has been committed, and not that a greater evil had been avoided. And it should perhaps mitigate the Atheist’s argument that the Saints of the past did not behave according to the moral standards of today, that a thorough review of modern social and political behavior would reveal that few of our own time’s men and women of influence are able to be any more exemplary than those of the Past who are now criticized.
So I would recommend we judge the Religious Institutions of the Past against the moral standards of the secular and barbaric Societies in which they had no choice but to interact. To judge things Ancient by Modern Standards may be useful in giving us a sense of moral progress, but to turn these comparisons into indictments is rather like blaming Apples for not being Oranges.
Atheists may insist that the Influence of Divine Omnipotence should have guaranteed a Moral Perfection from the very first moment of Creation. Yet, perhaps the Atheists should consider that our Eternity which we perceive as an endless span of Time, is to God but a Single Moment in which His Perfection is achieved. Engulfed in the middle of the Process, by the Illusion that we are passing through Time, we think we see imperfection, but it is rather Chaos inexorably combining into an Ultimate Moral Order. It is really not something we should be complaining about.
I can’t remember the name of the wise author who wrote of the great and good men of the past, that their virtues were their own, but their vices were those of their times. Their moral innovations came from a special light that shone from within them, but what we now see as their moral failures was not anything that came below what was considered ordinary and acceptable behavior for their times and in their societies. Moral Intuition and Reflection can only go so far in convincing even the bravest moral pioneer that he alone is right and all his contemporaries wrong. Also, there may have been instances where some unique individuals in the Past have lived entirely independent of the influence of their societies and conducted their lives in the most pristine goodness. But whether perceived as Saints or Insane, they must have been so very different from everybody else of their times that it must have been thought impossible to emulate them, and their influence on the Moral Development of the Societies minimal because it was so incomprehensible.
Today, it is a favorite argument of Atheists that the Religious Leaders, Saints, and Prophets of the past did not evince the same high moral standards by which we measure ourselves today. We should understand, however, that it is the cumulative moral efforts of these very people that have given us these high moral standards by which we now criticize them. We must also take into consideration that it is the inactive, secluded, retired and demur Intellectuals who seem to expect the Highest Moral Standards from those who live active lives. Those who live Active Social and Political lives, because they are lead into choices, some of which present moral dilemmas, must sometimes choose between evils, where the best that can be expected is that they choose the lesser of evils. But they who would insist upon a bitter and spiteful perfection, see only that evil has been committed, and not that a greater evil had been avoided. And it should perhaps mitigate the Atheist’s argument that the Saints of the past did not behave according to the moral standards of today, that a thorough review of modern social and political behavior would reveal that few of our own time’s men and women of influence are able to be any more exemplary than those of the Past who are now criticized.
So I would recommend we judge the Religious Institutions of the Past against the moral standards of the secular and barbaric Societies in which they had no choice but to interact. To judge things Ancient by Modern Standards may be useful in giving us a sense of moral progress, but to turn these comparisons into indictments is rather like blaming Apples for not being Oranges.
Atheists may insist that the Influence of Divine Omnipotence should have guaranteed a Moral Perfection from the very first moment of Creation. Yet, perhaps the Atheists should consider that our Eternity which we perceive as an endless span of Time, is to God but a Single Moment in which His Perfection is achieved. Engulfed in the middle of the Process, by the Illusion that we are passing through Time, we think we see imperfection, but it is rather Chaos inexorably combining into an Ultimate Moral Order. It is really not something we should be complaining about.