On Excellence as Morality - Part 2

The first segment ended on the thought that the Laws of Nature we humans have devised are the rules we use to determine what's real and unreal.

A. Nature as The Arbiter of Reality

To understand my theory on moral human behavior being determined by the Laws of Nature, we must agree on certain human understandings as truths.

Truth 1: Nature is a Whole

My definition of Nature is identical with the generally accepted definition of the universe. Nature encompasses everything. It includes all things, especially mankind.
Our tendency is to accompany any mention of the word 'universe' with a glance to the stars and a non-defined wave of the hand so as to suggest it is "out there." But our idea of the word 'nature' suggests the activities on the Serengeti Plain or the Central American rain forest, overdubbed with the voice of David Attenborough. We have no problem visualizing mankind sauntering through either the plain or the forest but we do have difficulty seeing mankind in a clump of stars and dust swirling in space millions and millions of light years away. But if there are rational life forms somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy, then that is exactly what they see. All matter that exists is contained in this definition of Nature as the ultimate container.

Truth 2: Nature Defines Reality

When I refer to Nature, I am referring to everything that exists. Men, women, and children. Animals, vegetables, and minerals. Stars, planets, asteroids, and comets. Everything that is. Everything that is real. For it is the very Laws of Nature that determine reality. If you drop a hammer over your foot, it is an unreal expectation for the hammer to float back up into your hand. The Law of Nature we call gravity will ensure the reality that will result in a swollen toe. Even though our mental capabilities allow us to conceive of unreal phenomena, our current understanding of Nature ensures that we can differentiate the real from the unreal.

Truth 3: The Permanence of the Presence

This wholeness suggests something else. That if something exists today, that it is real, then it has always existed, or at least its components have always existed. There is no warehouse available to Nature so it can go outside itself for some needed secret ingredient to bring about an intended phenomenon. No, if it's here now, it either has been here all along or its components have always been present awaiting the right circumstances to arise that would allow them to combine, or separate, and bring the observed phenomenon to reality.

Truth 4: Nature's Reward System

Nature relies on a reward system to generate development within its phenomena. Putting the variations within each species that arise in every litter of offspring to the test of survival of the fittest implements a system tht rewards traits that need to be retained and eliminates traits that impede survival.
When ancient pre-hominids realized that they had a better chance of finding food by roaming the plains instead of remaining up in the trees, there arborially useful tails became destined for elimination. Those pre-hominids that stood the more erect, ran faster, and responded quickest to threats were the ones who survived best on the plains. A tail would hinder all those responses by forcing a forward body lean to counterbalance the tail. Nature rewarded those hominids whose tails shrank and eliminated those with more stately tails. Your coccyx, or tailbone, is the vestige of this process.