What is “Right” and “Wrong” ?
A Note from Neale...
My dear friends...
We continue our series of messages under the title, “Getting to Know God.”
And today our topic covers the fascinating subject of “good” and “evil.” And just in time, too, because as we all know, he’s makin’ a list, and checking it twice, and gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. And then he’s comin’ to town.
So how do we know who’s naughty and nice . . . ? Well, millions of people—indeed, entire societies and cultures—have used as their basis an understanding of what the God in whom they believe is said to have announced, declared, commanded, and demanded.
It is God who is the defining and deciding authority regarding appropriate and inappropriate human behavior. Indeed, the civil laws of most countries and jurisdictions are rooted in this view.
Now comes The Great What If . . .
What if concepts such as “right” and “wrong” do not even exist in the Mind of God?
What if there are no such delineations or definitions in Ultimate Reality? Would it make a difference? Does it matter? In the overall scheme of things, would it have any significant impact in our planetary experience?
Of course it would. Billions of the world’s people would suddenly be rudderless on what they have created to be a stormy sea of human experience with-out what they presume to be God’s guidelines on what is right and wrong in many subtle areas. For instance, is falling in love with the “wrong” person at the “wrong” time intrinsically “good” or “evil”? Is cheating on one’s income tax “good” or “evil” if one believes that the government is using its money for “bad” things?
People around the world now base much of their individual behaviors, as well as the decisions and actions of their clan, group or tribe, on the Prominent Public Pronouncements of their particular faith tradition. And not just about Big Sins ...(killing, stealing, etc.)...but also more subtle, finer maneuverings of the mind---(the little white lie, the discreet affair that presumably hurts no one, etc.).
For Jews and many Christians this Prominent Public Pronoun-cement is the Ten Command-ments. For Muslims, it is the Five Pillars of Islam. For Buddhists, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Five Precepts. For Hindus, the Doctrine of the Fourfold End of Life. For those practicing Kemeticism (a reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian religion) there are the 11 Laws. Members of the Bahá’í Faith follow the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (the book of laws of Bahá’u’lláh). Sikhism has the Reht Maryada.
This list goes on. But if suddenly it was made clear that God has no laws—that divinity’s pronouncements and Deity’s revelations contain no commandments, requirements, regulations, rules, instructions, guidelines, precepts, principles, criteria, or behavioral do’s and don’ts of any kind—the rug would be pulled from under most of traditional theology, and not a small amount of global jurisprudence. Yet if standards for human conduct are not to be based on the demands of our Creator (for the reason that our Creator has made no demands), then our species will have to come up with a new rationale for declaring a certain action, choice, or decision “right,” and another one “wrong.”
If we take “morals”—i.e., the values arising out of our understanding of God’s commands or desires—out of the picture, then what shall be the “Gold Standard” for the deportment of our species?
One thing appears certain about our present standard: the arbitrary labeling of choices and actions as “right” and “wrong” is based on capricious, often varying, and too frequently contradictory interpretations of God’s Law, and it has done more harm than good in far too many instances around the world for that standard to any longer be considered reasonable, or even useful, within an enlightened society.
Yet the search for, and the creation of, a new behavioral standard could lead to massive upheaval in humanity’s social and spiritual communities . . . which is no doubt why ancient standards are clung to.
Nobody wants to rock the boat. Not even when the boat is sinking.
Yet God has been telling us from the very beginning, and it is becoming more clear to us every day, that humanity’s Ancient Cultural Story about right and wrong is plainly and simply inaccurate.
It is okay now to remove this ancient teaching from our current story, and to stop telling this to ourselves and to our children.
In Ultimate Reality there is no such thing as right and wrong. These concepts are human constructions based on a misunderstanding of what God wants, and a total lack of comprehension regarding both the reason for, and the purpose of, life itself.
The reason that judgments about right and wrong are not present in the Mind of God is that the concepts themselves are based on the condition or the experience of benefit and damage— . . . neither of which exist in Ultimate Reality.
Nothing can be of benefit to That Which Is The Source Of All Benefit. Imagining that some-thing benefits God is like imagin-ing that a penny benefits a billionaire. Likewise, nothing can damage That Which Is The Source Of All That Is. So again...because God cannot be benefited or damaged in any way, the idea of some-thing being right or wrong does not exist in the Mind of God.
This idea will not exist in the mind of humans either, when human beings come to understand that they, also, cannot be benefited or damaged in any way. It is very possible for human beings to experience the illusion of benefit or damage during their physical experience upon the earth, yet this is but the result of their idea about what is occurring.
William Shakespeare put it this way: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” In other words, we are making it all up. We are defining and deciding what is “good” or “bad,” “right” and “wrong,” depending upon our mood of the moment, given the situation, time, and place.
In Peoria, Illinois prostitution is “wrong.” In Amsterdam, The Netherlands it is a legitimate business, licensed and regulated by the government, and not a small source of municipal revenue.
In 1914, living together out of wedlock was considered “wrong.” In 2014 it is considered a good idea before entering into the long-term commitment of marriage, or for older folks seeking companionship in their later years without the legal entanglements of matrimony.
We are making things up as we go along, and we are changing our minds as we go along—yet we can get caught up in any given moment imaging that, in this particular moment, what is right is right, and what is wrong is wrong.
God has nothing to do with these delineations. They are entirely a product of humanity’s constructions. If God were defining right and wrong, those definitions would remain constant. What is true in Peoria would be true in Amsterdam. What was true in 1914 would be true in 2014. Right and wrong would not be determined by map or calendar.
The question before humanity, then, is not whether God declares something to be right or wrong, but what is it that makes a human being do so?
The observable answer is that human beings have already decided (although few wish to admit it) that they are going to judge every choice or action as being “right” or “wrong” based on whether they believe it will be effective in achieving their goals. Thus, humans can sanction the State killing someone intentionally, even as humans declare that killing someone intentionally is wrong.
Thus, humans can cheer a Robin Hood tale of robbing from the rich to give to the poor, even as humans assert that stealing is wrong.
Thus, humans can convince themselves that a romantic encounter with another’s mistreated and ignored spouse in the name of love is understandable, even as humans maintain that adultery is wrong.
In human interactions it turns out that nothing is considered right or wrong absolutely, but that these judgments are made within a particular context. This is the truth of it on the earth. It would serve us to openly admit this, and then to decisively declare that our new Human Code of Conduct shall be based not on “morals,” or what we have arbitrarily decided that God wants and commands, but rather, on what works and what does not work, given what it is we are trying to do.
If you are trying to win the motorcar race at the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, it would not be “wrong” to drive 175 miles an hour. If you are trying to get to the grocery store without endangering yourself or others, you may not want to drive that fast. It simply does not work, given what it is you are trying to do.
There is difficulty and challenge in openly acknowledging and utilizing such a practical measure as the Gold Standard for human behavior, however. The difficulty is that humanity would then have to admit to itself that its “ Gold Standard” is all over the place, and thus, not a “standard” at all. And why? Because we, as a collective, are profoundly unclear about what we are trying to do.
And THAT is because most of the members of our species are confused about Who We Are (our true identity as sentient beings), and Why We Are Here (the real reason for life, and the purpose of individual and collective experience). And this is because humanity is totally mistaken about the reality, function, purpose, and nature of God. Most of humanity, anyway. Those of us here are very clear about all this, aren’t we?
The function and purpose of God is to empower US to experience ourselves as Divine. God desires to know Itself experientially through the process of Life Itself.
That means, through US.
So today, in a world where there is so much confusion, I give thanks for people like you...who know what it is you are trying to do, and who go about it with peace, joy, and love in your heart. If there is to be a New Tomorrow, YOU will be the creators of it. God “universally” does not decide what us “good” and what is “evil.” The PART of God that is YOU decides.
It is as Ernest Holmes says, in his book, The Science of Mind, “Pure religion ...unifies with all humanity, and finds no great difference between saint and sinner. Such a religion as this, the world of today needs, for it is sick of pretense, and would like a practical demonstration of a belief in God, made manifest through good works.
And Dr. Holmes goes ON...”It could not be stated more plainly. Evil is man created, while God—the Eternal Goodness—knows nothing about it. He is too pure to behold evil. “Evil...” says Dr. Holmes, “has no reality behind it.”
I could not agree more. So let us go forth this Christmas season and prove Ernest Holmes right. Let us remove the illusion of “evil” from every aspect or part of life that we touch. Let this be our Christmas gift to others this year.
With love,
