Morals of Our Past
A few hundred thousand years ago early men began encroaching on each other’s territory. Space became crowded relatively speaking. They traveled farther into new lands in search of new pickings and better hunting grounds. Of course this wasn’t the beginning of morality; it didn’t spring up of a sudden because two bands in close proximity had problems in deciding whose space belonged to whom. It began millions of years earlier and man had developed a set of standards to govern his conduct which had evolved over these millions of years he had been living in groups in trees, on the planes and in caves and villages. Living in groups requires some form of social behavior or rules/morals: This is my mate and my offspring, no one messes with someone else’s mate and offspring, this is my spear and no one messes with someone else’s spear, this is my space within our band, keep out, and one must respect my position in the band as I respect those above me. Living in a group requires one to respect the rights of all in the band whether you are a human or an animal.
If a band or group moved in too close to another, they each had two choices. Probably the weaker or smaller either relocated of stood their ground. Their morals were kill or be killed. Of course the stronger usually won and killed everyone in the weaker band. Or maybe they killed everyone except the females, who they took captive as slaves or for their pleasure. This practice continued throughout history and may still be happening somewhere. There are tribes still living in the jungles who have never been exposed to modern day people. Let us hope they continue without the knowledge of us or our knowledge of them. This is hopeless thinking, for some do-gooder will eventually intervene and force his moral beliefs on them. Anyway, these are examples of some of our early primitive moralities, i.e., tribal and territorial. You stay out of my hunting ground and I’ll stay out of yours. Our early morals were necessary and were a vital part of our evolution. They are still vital but they are a little too diverse.
Some Modern Day Examples
I have a family member; we’ll call him Billy Bob, who is an avid hunter. Hunting brings him great pleasure. He hunts twelve months a year. Bag limits mean nothing to him and he kills indiscriminately. His family could never eat all what he brings down, so being a generous guy he gives away most of his kills. He is full of tails of the hunt. Once I listened to him tell a tale how he once, armed with only a knife, chased a bear up a tree. “I stabbed it right through the throat.” I listened in awe and a little doubt as he spun his tale. It sounded a little dubious because bears don’t normally escape up trees; at least not full grown ones. After a few questions the Daniel Boon story turned from one of awe to one of disgust when he admitted the vicious animal was a scared bear cub. Billy Bob, filled with pride, explained that he had just killed its mother and its litter mate. He dressed out the bear family and gave their carcasses to his friends. He simply killed them for the sheer pleasure of it and had no feelings of guilt or shame. I know he has compassion for some animals. He has a dog and other domestic animals. Wild animals are meant to be killed and eaten.
More Morals and What’s Ahead
1- Some modern men’s morals haven’t progressed much from those of our cave dwelling ancestors. Our ancient forefathers used to stampede herds of mammoths over cliffs just for a few meals of fresh meat. No wonder the poor beasts went extinct. How many selfish hunters combing the woods to satisfy their wanton lust for the kill would it take before the woods were emptied of life?
2- Moral beliefs of one man/tribe/religion/country do not necessarily agree with those of another’s. Maybe that’s a good thing, i.e., without all the wars and attempted genocides of ethnic, racial, religious groups or nations throughout history, Earth may have reached and even surpassed its ability to feed our populations. Over the last few decades the world’s population as well as the number of starving has doubled. Are we fighting a losing battle? With all our modern technology we’ve only succeeded in polluting our environment. While some individuals stuff their gullets with enough food to sustain a dozen or more people, yet we haven’t improved our problem of feeding the starving one iota, even in our own country, i.e., United States.
3- To continue to exist and preserve our environment, we need to adjust our morals. Some system for controlling our birth rate and maybe reducing our longevity might be essential. Our views on abortions, same sex marriages and assisted suicides, now scorned by some, will have to be re-evaluated. Maybe death sentences for minor crimes would be an option. We squirm at these ideas but they were practiced in the past and were even popular within religious sects clear up to a few hundred years ago and they did bring about change. Something would have to be installed whether we like it or not. I’m in favor of some now. If you can’t abide by the rules, you’re out, completely out. Your space is needed for someone who will follow the rules. Come to think of it, punishment for crimes is supposed to be a deterrent. Maybe murder could be rewarded. Okay this is getting a little crazy. Let’s move on. The point is, we cannot continue as we are.
4- Can you envision a society where every family is issued a plot of land where they must grow what is needed to feed their controlled group of four i.e., mother father and two children, a boy and a girl. China is an interesting country to study about population explosion. Their one child policy was somewhat successful but incited a rash of forced abortions, infanticide and strict penalties. Female babies were abandoned, given away or killed just to have another chance at producing a son. This resulted in a shortage of females. Something would have to be done about that. We have the technology but people keep screaming it’s immoral. China is starting to burst at its seams. In a few generations its people will be flooding into the world. This isn’t painting a pretty picture. You have to admit, morals will have to change.
5- We don’t seem to be improving in any case. What we are getting good at is learning how to live healthier, conqueror diseases and things to allow us to grow older. Some day being a centurion may be the optimum age for retirement. Instead of retiring at sixty-five, maybe they could issue us a pill that sent us into the other world. The place where lots of people want to go anyway. After all, retired people only put a burden on everyone else. They eat too much, get paid too much and spend too little, take up space and contribute little. I’m being facetious here. I’m a member of this group.
6- We know how to curb and prevent propagation and yet there are groups that would and do kill an adult who wants to end their pregnancy or even those who aid anyone in the process. They are doing the very thing they accuse others of doing, i.e., taking a life. If they worked as hard as they do, e.g., blocking clinics, burning them down, condemning and killing those who are providing a safer system to aid a woman abort and unwanted pregnancy, for whatever reason. Maybe they could come up with a better solution. No! They would rather stuff their ideas of morality down the throats of others. We won’t discuss what should be stuffed down their throat.
More on Killing Animals
Have you ever hit a domestic animal i.e., dog or cat while driving around ? Or have you ever run over a wild animal while cruising along the country side or in the suburbs? What’s the difference, you may ask? Well, in the first case, most are more apt to stop to give aid because it’s probably someone’s pet, or at least to seek the owner of the injured or dead animal. Or, depending on your morals and/or your pocketbook, you might even take the animal to a vet. Maybe you’re someone whose morals are not so high and you quickly drive off hoping there were no witnesses. Or maybe you are the type who goes out of you way to run over any living thing that gets in your path. In the case of the wild animal you may not even slow down, even though you’re going against your morals. You may have empthy for the creature, but then, it’s just a wild animal so you keep going whether it happened in a residential area or in the country. Maybe you think the damn thing should stay in the trees or behind the bushes where it belongs. Maybe the animal feels the same about us. We are the ones who drove it from its home to begin with. Or maybe you just don’t have the time.
These are all examples of morals. Some may fit you and some may turn your stomach, but they are all morals. Everyone and every group may have a different set of morals and that’s alright and you don’t have to agree with them although you should respect their views. By the way, this is a moral too, one that some overlook even when they think their set of ethics is above reproach or maybe because they believe they are the cream of the crop.
What is the answer to improving our lives, our world and our relationship with our neighbors? It’s in the Bible. And if everyone practiced it, we might have a near perfect world. It has to do with love, and it’s not love your Lord.
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