E. Excellence as Morality
How can I offer the need for excellence as the motor of human evolution to a higher status as the basis for determining moral human behavior?
Logic, perhaps?
If God created nature (the universe),
And the laws of nature define reality,
Then God created reality.
If nature sculpts all that is real,
Then God sculpts all that is real.
If nature uses evolution to reward and eliminate,
Then God uses evolution to reward and eliminate.
If we do something to advance evolution toward its ultimate goal,
Then we do something to advance toward God’s ultimate goal.
If actions that advance toward God’s goal are moral,
Then to advance evolution toward its goal is moral.
If humanity represents the life form closest to evolution’s goal,
Then advancing human evolution is to advance toward God’s goal.
If the need to be excellent is the motor of human evolution,
Then acting to advance human excellence moves towards God’s goal.
If advancing toward God’s goal is the definition of morality,
Then acting to further human excellence is to achieve morality.
So, what actions achieve excellence? Remember that no one is excellent alone so we need to discuss morality as an interaction between individuals and their communities. It requires a community to add to its membership to introduce further innovations. It has to do with how well a community supports its members in each’s struggle for excellence.
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1 comment:
Interesting series of premises. As I was reading it, it raised a question in my mind: What is excellence? Is it perfection, or is it the highest stage of humanity? Or as Aristotle would have said, is excellence the point when a human reaches his most humanness? This then raises another question: What is humanness, or what does it mean to be human? From a Christian spiritual point of view, if God made man in His image and in His likeness, then man's ultimate form is godliness. We would then have to reach the stage where not only are we most like Him in His image (logical, reasonable, self-aware), but also like Him in His likeness (like Christ). I can only speak from this perspective because I am not familiar with alternative spiritual perspectives. But you get the point. Interesting thought experiment.
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