A Chronic Moral Dilemma: Religion and Our Own Conscience, Part 5
The Transformation of Christianity
Most Americans consider themselves Christians, but they do many things Christ would not have done. He wasn’t excluding people right and left or shunning his enemies; he was drawing people together. But there are 34,000 different Christian sects, all based on disagreements: 34,000 groups thinking what they want to think and shutting themselves off from everyone else. If you are a Christian, you shouldn’t see yourself as a group opposed to other groups. You should try to be more like Jesus was! He was peaceful, independent, and confident enough to be open. But in reaching out to the Church, wishing to share these cognitive structures and the moral certainty they offer, I have found it mostly to be a closed door. In less civil times, when Jesus began to speak, the townspeople tried to push him off a cliff. If we keep holding up these barriers, nothing will change.
The Christian audience is the most important audience on Earth, because the fate of the free world is in their hands. Christianity must lead the charge, and transform into a purely nature-respecting philosophy. Invite me in, and I will help you. America and all free nations must show a united front to the world, and I submit that the moral code we can all agree on can only come from nature itself.
This is not a radical expectation. Back in the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas discovered the works of Aristotle. Aquinas wrote extensively on the subject, and was so persuasive that the Catholic Church absorbed the full works of Aristotle into the Christian faith. The work of Aristotle lies at the base of ALL major religions, serving as the rational, acceptable part. His work can even be found in Muslim teachings since the seventh century. Only a morality’s practical value can make it stick. Historically, the resounding undercurrent of truth upsets all contrary designs.
By describing the natural patterns we all practice, Moral Armor has advanced the work of Aristotle, drawing a deeper moral parallel between men than has ever existed. St. Thomas Aquinas would be first to champion the seamless integration of nature and moral devotion. So you see, it has happened once already. It is time for Christianity to show its leadership and take another brave step.
Now, understand that no one has to give up their religion. There are no demands made here; Moral Armor is just an acute observation of natural law, and its simple yet profound moral structure. The beauty is, we live by this philosophy already, and it is critical to be able to confirm true moral premises through nature. Knowing is much more powerful than leaving things to faith. On the world stage, you have to stick to what you can prove. Allegiance to life must come before religious or political ideas. If your ideas do not honor the peaceful, biological furtherance of an individual, if they disrupt or deny life to mankind, then they are wrong.
If you are truly interested in being the best person you can be, you should constantly be learning from every available source. With the structures I have outlined, you will end up with a practically clairvoyant understanding of your own religion, and that goes for any religion or philosophy in history. You can lay the grid over it and see precisely where they are right or wrong and where their lessons fit.
Most of us, Christian and otherwise, are already practicing nature’s morality—it is the silent undercurrent in life that binds us all—we just need explicit awareness of it. Once you are openly aware and your motives are all flowing in one common, life-furthering direction, you will gain an overwhelming confidence and a spiritual fulfillment beyond anything you could imagine. People will notice life blooming around you, and it will spread by example alone. Your kids will be on track to living confident, productive, happy lives and most of your worries will be gone. So take a deep breath and be brave. Give nature’s morality a chance because we can’t win without you. If your religious premises are sound, then they will flow with life, and never against it. By honoring our common ground, free civilizations will be unbeatable. By morally empowering every individual, we will achieve what Jesus intended anyway, and then world peace is just a matter of time.