October 28 2009

October 18, 2009

The culture of not only this country but of the world begs for commentary based on reason. The problems, the confusion, and to some degree the metaphorical darkness that enfolds this world is a result of man not adhering to the design he was created for, which is to search for and adhere to truth. All ills of this world can be attributed to either the non recognition of “truth” or the rebellion against “truth”.

So then, the age old question raises its head again, ‘what is truth?’ How do we come to truth? Can everyone have ‘the’ truth? Is truth objective? Can each person have his or her own individual truth? According to Webster ‘truth’ is defined as ‘fact or reality’; ‘that which is’.

We are creatures of an environment. With being creatures and being created there must be a plausible or reasonable assumption that we have a creator. There is nothing in man’s experience that dictates otherwise. From the fountain pen, to the automobile, to the most esoteric of thoughts—there is a creator of each of these entities. So also with reason we can deduce, being creatures of a material world, that we have a creator. Each of these elements, the pen, the auto, a thought not only has a creator but also a purpose; the pen to write, the automobile to carry and travel, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to explain the cosmos and how it works through physics. What they all have in common is a creator and a purpose. These are ‘truths’ based on reason. One could say about the pen that it is a crow bar. Yet the pen will not work as a crowbar in prying or lifting a heavy load from a floor. No matter how many times an individual repeats the mantra that the pen is a crow bar or how many times an individual is told it is a crow bar or how many times an individual attempts using that pen as a crowbar—the pen will not work as nor is a crow bar. Pens do not fulfill that purpose because they were not designed for that purpose, were not created for that purpose. Is it the complete truth? No. But neither is it the complete truth that all pens are fountain pens; all automobiles are Hondas and all esoteric thoughts come from Einstein. There is a fullness of ‘truth’ which we will get into much later in our discussion.

Let’s take the automobile. The creator is Honda, or more specifically, a number of engineers. They created this marvel of engineering to take an individual or group of individuals from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’. It has an ‘owner’s manual’—usually in the glove compartment. That owner’s manual directs whoever owns the car on how it runs, what makes it run and how to keep it running properly. One would think that the creator of this automobile would know this information and for a variety of reasons would want the owner to know as well. Now Sam, who owns the automobile, normally would want to read the ‘owner’s manual in order to maintain and keep his car operating. Sam wants to find out the ‘truth’ in regards to changing the oil or what kind of gas he should put in the gas tank so that his car will operate properly and keep operating properly. But for a moment, let’s assume that he doesn’t want to find out from the manual what the ‘truth’ is in regards to keeping his auto running well (rebellion against truth). Sam goes to his neighbor. Now his neighbor, Joe, is from New York City. He’s never owned a car; has had no interest in anything mechanical, and could care less how they work because he always takes public transportation. Sam asks Joe, what he thinks he should put in the crankcase. Joe responds with ‘molasses’ (ignorance of truth). The motivation is irrelevant. The knowledge and advice is false. Sam doesn’t know it but when he gets home and puts molasses in the crank case because of his friends advice, starts the engine, and takes it out on the road, it will not be very long before the automobile will break down, not run any longer and could be irreparably damaged. Joe didn’t do this out of spite necessarily but from lack of knowledge and care. Even more so, Sam took it upon himself to inquire or get advice from someone who, at the very least, is incompetent, making himself partially responsible for the eventual breakdown of his car.

We, this wonderfully, ‘well knit’ creation of humanity that populates this world, have the same things metaphorically happening to us today, as with that automobile. We also have been created with an ‘owner’s manual’. And it has been with us since the beginning of time. We can see society today and its disintegration. It’s happening before our very eyes because we as individuals as well as collectively are trying to follow a manual that wasn’t produced by the entity that created us. Instead, society looks towards the media, the entertainment industry, Oprah, the secular and agnostic fathers of pop culture for answers, life styles, for thought processes, for perfect marriages, how to consistently be happy--to all of these elements as being in or should be in our ‘owner’s manual’. And the results? Marriages have over a fifty percent divorce rate; abortion is now numbering in the forty plus million; there are two states in the union that sanction suicide; a drug war declared by the government back in the Nixon era that has spent untold billions of dollars and yet the problem not only has not receded but in actuality has accelerated; a separation and attempted elimination of classes; forced redistribution of wealth; and the list goes on. Notice that the previous sentence involves nothing but death and destruction. Why? We don’t have to look back through the history of this world and see what has happened to humanity—it’s happening right before our very eyes. And it’s happening because of our almost total disregard of ‘our owner’s manual’. From Rome to present day society—there is nothing new under the sun. One can track historically the rise and fall of world cultures and societies when they disregard this ‘owner’s manual’. It’s not pretty.

But we really do have an ‘owner’s manual’. And because we are creations our creator has imbedded this ‘owners manual’ in our ‘glove compartment’--our soul, our very being, cross societal, cross cultural.

It’s called the Natural Law.