The other day, I was listening to my XTC tape in my car. It was playing one of my favorite songs, "Merely a Man."
I'm merely a man/
and I bring nothing but love for you.
I'm merely a man/
and I want nothing that you can't do.
And you know it's true.
That with logic and love we'll be lifting humanity higher - higher!
This got me to thinking. Could it really be that simple? Could it be that all we have ever needed in order to make our world a veritable paradise is the ability to think logically and feel compassion toward our fellow humans?
For many years, while I was religious, I accepted the theory from the Bible that the cause of all human misery was man's inherently "evil" nature. As I understand it, the theory (in its more primitive form) goes that humanity needs to be shown the "proper" way to act by the "ultimate authority" represented by God and handed to these poor, wayward, evil people by way of the intermediary priests. Of course, the earlier attempts to follow this notion resulted in a set of laws, supposedly handed to the ultimate Jewish priest, Moses.
As we know, this was not a workable plan, for trying to codify a specific definition of every harmful act possible to humans is impossible. That was the first of many problems with the attempt made by the Jews to address the issues of human nature. Other problems included the fact that many of the laws held no regard for situational ethics (is it wrong for an abused wife to use force to defend herself?), and many of the laws "handed down" were obviously made just for the benefit of the priesthood.
In a sense, Christianity was at least a partial solution to the problems with the model of "revealed laws." It attempted to do away with the idea that a set of laws, written in a book, should be the only source of authority in helping people learn to get along in peace. The problems with this attempt were many. For instance, it denied accountability for actions by making it possible for any action to be forgiven by God. Also, the definition of what actions are "sinful" was never well-defined; as I've heard it, a sin is anything that goes against God's will. Since God's will is such a bone of contention in nearly every issue and instance, definitions of "sin" are similarly incoherent. An examination of the history of the Christian movement will show that there is no real unifying vision involved (except, of course, the growth of the power and wealth of the Church itself).
This is, in my opinion, the central reason for the failure of religion as a civilizing force in the human community. We have built a world where we expect an "ultimate truth" from this "ultimate being" and decide that this will be the authority to which we will bow. Unfortunately, this authority figure is nothing more than a phantom created by religious leaders. The pronouncements made by these leaders show that they are not in communication with any such "ultimate being," despite their claims to the contrary.
But the question to me should be, "Do we really need an authority?" Could we conceivably build a workable, stable civilization using nothing but "logic and love"?
I know that on an individual level, logic appears to be quite a useful tool in my everyday life. I try to keep in mind my basic rule - never make a decision based on emotions. When one makes decisions using an emotional base, mistakes are quite often made. This is not to say that using logic is a fool-proof way to get through life without mistakes. Quite the contrary, trying to use logic working with incomplete or false information will almost invariably lead to as many mistakes as the emotion-based decisions of the non-logical life. Still, when used properly, logic is quite a powerful, useful tool.
The advantages of making one's decisions based on logic are many. First off, an individual who uses logic alone has to acknowledge that he's responsible for his actions. Accepting the consequences for inaccurate decision-making is much easier when your mind isn't clouded with "the Devil made me do it," or "it must be right - it's God's will." Second, it occurs to me that when the necessity of getting good information becomes clear, the talent for finding and recognizing the pertinent facts will become a high priority for people. It also occurs to me that it'd be rather nice to have a decent shot at seeing people with a chance to come close to the same conclusion concerning their common problems.
So then as far as I can tell, the answer to the basic question is "No." We don't need some authority figure to tell us what decisions to make. It is possible to live at peace with one's neighbors, and to take responsibility for actions that harm those neighbors, all as a result of simply using logic.
But now, the same question can be asked of communities of people, and not simply of individuals. Do nations as a whole need guidance from an overarching, supernatural authority?
In my opinion, it should be pretty obvious that no nation has ever shown any evidence of being guided in a purposeful manner by a "higher intelligence." Rather, they all appear to have lived lives that follow a small number of common patterns. Everyone is familiar with the truism that history repeats itself. I suspect that this phenomenon is due in large part to the very nature of unguided societies. Just as there are physical laws that govern the behavior of physical objects, it looks as though left unaffected, human societies will follow very similar patterns - not through external, supernatural guidance to follow an overall plan, but through the working of natural principals. I expect anthropologists have a better, more methodical way of looking at this issue.
In any event, it seems to me that if a society were made up of rational people, using logic and being willing to consider the long-term consequences of societal decisions, life would be far different than what we experience today. This is very likely what America's founders had in mind when they established an officially secular state. In my opinion, that attempt at utopia was hijacked and killed in its infancy by the religious leaders who were determined to make America a "Christian Nation." What would America have turned out to be without the Christian interference? There's no telling. However, I'd be extremely pleased to see how America could turn out if it returned to the original vision of its free-thinking, rational founders.