I constantly hear from steadfast believers in the religions, in this instance Islam, Judaism, Christianity, that ethics and morality stem from these sources. Emphatically, I say they do not.
The first instance of an ethical system comes from ancient Egypt. "Do as you would be done by." A complex, if pragmatic, assertion. But this stems from ancient Egyptian scribes and administrators getting along with each other at court. In ancient Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, kings ruled through ethical standards-shepherds who looked after the welfare of their people, or flock. Nevertheless, the gods they worshiped were willful and indifferent to human suffering. A holy person merely kept rituals correctly and sacrifised in the ordained fashion. Rules were everything! In ancient Rome, the gods were fairly much the same.
The Hebrews developed god's commandments to cover the whole of life, but borrowed from secular or pagan sources. These were priest ridden societies, or the material they wrote, stories, laws, and rules, give that impression. It is possible that ancient Hebrew society was as flexible and life-loving as most other societies. Equally, there is evidence that the early Hebrews, up until the beginning of the Christian era, worshiped other gods as well. While people were commanded not to kill, breaking of taboos ensured they did. An adulterous woman was stoned to death. Sexual morality crept in, along with repugnance of both sexuality and the body. Such morality was, and is, negative and deadly, with destruction of the body not its celebration. A dark morality had emerged constituted upon unethical behaviour by those who were most moral. From here on, death was preferred to life. God, or gods, became a judge.
Islam's original back-to basics notions, one god, without the philosophical concerns of 6th century Christianity, nor its hint of paganism, provided what appears to be a religion of negativity.
No comments:
Post a Comment