HOW TO DO THE RIGHT THING
Duncan Graham originally wanted to be an Anglican priest. Then he was rescued by journalism. Now in mainly Muslim Indonesia with the call to prayer bouncing off nearby buildings five times a day, he's been led to a mountain of questions.
Would a child raised by a machine or even animals - such as the wolf mums of mythology - turn the littlie into a baddie because she or he had been denied the upbringing of a legacy faith?
If so today’s most brutal dictators must have been suckling a dry she-wolf in her lair instead of kneeling before an altar as they claim, professing piety to mask villainy, blessing armaments.
Morality and compassion can't have been in the colostrum.
Stories of feral kids cared for by wildlife may help recharge a tabloid's slow-news day; though never authenticated they're philosophically useful.
Do we instinctively know what's wrong or are religious teachings essential to show us the correct way? The dirty doctrine of original sin much loved by barren fundamentalists and challenged by every loving parent is now in the nappy bucket.
Long before Jesus and Mohammad, the Greek philosophers used reason and logic to teach morality, what we Australians call 'doing the right thing'. It's undefined but obvious, like trying to stop a crazed stabber in a supermarket.
Is a boy from a religious family more likely to grow into a ‘good bloke’? Does that widely used term mean steering away from dobbing-in a mate even though it’s known he’s a wife-basher?
If those raised reciting a ‘holy’ book are lauded as righteous how do we handle the behaviours of paedophiliac priests?
If the broad teachings of morality are ignored in local examples do they have lasting worth?
Nations, religions, leaders, teachers, organisations, and individuals often try to write a set of rules of life - how to behave in a way that suits them or their vision of a society they'd like to impose.
Why bother? The Greek philosopher Plato (427 - 348 BC) reportedly observed that: ‘Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.’
He’s also credited with saying: “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
This reads like the latest trendy education philosophy from Finland yet written about 2,350 years ago. Maybe modernity doesn't always equal wisdom.
Most rule-makers seem to be powered by the need to control, to keep the crowd quiet and themselves safe.
Apart from North Korea and other totalitarian states that doesn’t mean their commands are followed, only that they exist. But what to do when those ordered not to commit murder instead indulge in mass murder in the name of their beliefs? Should the killers then be killed?
The usual solution is to say the script is flawed and there should have been exceptions.
The Bible's Ten Commandments, aka The Decalogue, is the order on how the Israelites, then camped at Mount Sinai should behave. It's now supposed to be the foundation for Christian belief.
To give the tablets credibility among the doubting mob, like most tricksters Moses had to work out of sight. That meant climbing the misty mountain.
When he came back after 40 days and nights he told the crowd the words had been written on rock and God had helped guide the chisel.
The first version is in Exodus 24:
It’s a list of DO NOTs based on how Moses' people behaved. Based on the admonitions they weren't friendly folk, but jealous killers, thieves, fornicators and fickle worshippers, particularly of golden calves, and needing to be brought into line.
As things turned out it might have been better for the world if Moses’ catalogue had been a MUST DO shopping list; sadly it’s prohibitive, not inspirational:
If you find this modern Oz journalist's terse interpretation unacceptable fear not - there are scores of others and yours is most definitely right.
No other gods … no image . . no name insults… rest on Sunday . . care for your parents … don’t kill, have affairs, steal, lie and be jealous.
You can find three different versions in the Bible. Some have more than ten edicts, implying elders couldn’t count beyond the sum of their fingers.
Here’s a longer one full of ‘haths’, ‘thees’ and ‘shews’ to make it feel more authentic.
Scottish theologian and journalist William Barclay 1907 - 78 wrote that the Commandments are “a summary of fundamental principles … that apply universally, across changing circumstances. …Their precise import must be worked out in each separate situation.”
In brief, pick ‘n choose what suits and move on.
Better than all the wordy jargon is the Golden Rule ascribed to Jesus but so saturated by common sense any dinkum seer might have spoken the words: "Treat others like you want them to treat you".
Fortunately, it's too pithy for theologians to dissect or embellish, though not cynics: "He who has the gold makes the rules".
The created-in-secrecy principle is also used in Islam where Muhammad is said to have received instructions in a dream from Allah via the angel Gabriel. These became the Qur'an.
At the time illiteracy was common so few could read the words and criticise. Soothsayers interpreted, and not all had the appropriate certificates and codes of ethics to do their job impartially.
That no others were present to verify the tale hasn't stopped the religion from becoming number two in the world with 1.9 billion adherents.
Much of the teachings follow Christianity and Jesus is recognised as an earlier prophet. At the time such people who reckoned they had foresight (now they’d be discredited as charlatans or stock advisers) were followed for their alleged ability to foresee the future.
Armageddon and the return of the Messiah were regular topics, not the cost of living and internet scams. A pity - early warnings would have been helpful.
Allah’s instructions to his scribe cleverly included the revelation that there’d be no more prophets and this was the final word, slamming shut the door on clairvoyants.
The five pillars of Islam start with the profession that "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God" - a sort of reference for the tale-teller.
Then come the obligations - to pray five times a day, to give alms, fast and go on the hajj - a pilgrimage to Mecca. Airlines now profit greatly from this instruction.
In Islamic law, there are prohibitions (haram) on killing, stealing lying, eating pig meat, drinking alcohol and missionising. These rules get stretched by scholars according to the politics of the day.
In Indonesia (where 88 per cent of the population allegedly follows Sunni Islam), the founding president Soekarno helped create Pancasila (five principles) as the soul of the Unitary State after declaring the former Dutch colony a Republic.
The ideologies are:
Belief in the one and only God.
A just and civilized humanity
The unity of Indonesia
Democracy led by wisdom in deliberation/representation
Social justice for all the people of Indonesia.
All are wrapped in the national slogan Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, old Javanese for Unity in Diversity.
It comes from Kakawin Sutasoma, (poem about Lord Sutasoma) written in the 14th century Majapahit Era by Mpu Tantular and promoting tolerance between Hindus and Buddhists.
More specifically Pancasila is supposed to be the soul of the Indonesian nation, its personality, way of life and the basis of law and ethics.
To give it the sort of mystique enjoyed by the Commandments being located on a mountain and Al Qur'an in a dream, Soekarno said he'd dug them up while working his garden and contemplating under a breadfruit tree.
The metaphor has now become the myth. He was then in Ende on Flores Island sent into exile between 1934 and 1938 by the Dutch colonial administration that feared his influence and demagoguery.
The founder of the nation was less interested in religion than women - he had nine known wives. But he had to placate his less carnal comrades threatening a theocracy by allowing belief in the one and only God as the number one billing.
How this fits with multi-deity Hindu beliefs, most openly held in Bali, and the millions of animists have yet to be convincingly explained.
The late British mathematician, pacifist and intellectual Bertrand Russell followed no mainstream religion so devised rules for life published in his Principals of Philosophy:
Be tolerant of others.
Do your best to understand people.
Be true to yourself and face your problems head-on. Try to work out your own problems before trying to solve those of other people.
Remember that everything is relative; everyone views things differently.
Accept yourself and what you have (or don’t have).
Avoid being too attached to material things.
Be patient and tolerant, even with people who frustrate you or seem unfair; this will help you to avoid anger and bitterness in your own heart.
None of these suggestions includes recognising and being loyal to god, which is a keystone to Christianity and Islam.
Back to the Greeks and theologian Xenophanes (560-478 BC) for a slice of logic.
“If cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw / And could sculpt like men,
‘Then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape / Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own.”
Meaning? You picture your god, your good, and try the Golden Rule. Also, stay clear of lactating wolves.
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