"Never judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins" Native American Proverb
I have been thinking a lot lately about whether it is possible to make any kind of moral judgement about anyone. This is partly because Hen has been filling me in on the delights of genetics, which suggests that our characters are in part formed through our genes. It is also partly because I have been reading Rabbi Marc Gellman's column in Newsweek. This has led me to think a bit about God, heaven and hell, and the way in which God purportedly comes to judge the living and the dead and section us off into good and bad, lucky sheep and unfortunate goats. This has always seemed to me an unfortunate analogy: goats cannot help being goats, and in the same way, sheep are not really responsible for their innate sheepish nature. Goats are wild and free becuase they are made that way, and sheep follow a shepherd (or one another) because it is in their nature to do so.
It seems to me, that people are not really so different from these sheep and goats. Each person is a product of his genetic make-up, which he cannot change, a product of his upbringing and history (i.e. nurture), which he also cannot change, and a product of his circumstances, which are again usually beyond his control. These factors combine in many different ratios to produce a finished person with a certain character - a propensity for anger, a compassionate nature, or a tendency to give up easily, for example. In order to suggest that a person has any "free will" or ability to combat these influential factors, we need to posit a self-determined force, an individual spirit independent of nature, nurture and circumstance.
This is getting quite philosophical, so let me give an example. Take, for instance, a jobless man. His lack of a job may be put down to laziness. There are obviously many other reasons why he might be unemployed, but let's keep it simple for now. Why might he be lazy? Firstly, he might have laziness inbuilt in his genes- his father and grandfather were lazy, he has inherited their laziness. Is this his fault? Could he overcome it? Perhaps, if he was sufficiently taught by, for instance, his mother, how to overcome his laziness. If he didn't have a helpful mother, however, is this his fault? He could not change his upbringing but perhaps he could find a mentor elsewhere, in the form of a teacher or friend? This is down to chance or circumstance, and is again, not his fault.
Are we, then, never to be blamed for our actions? Is there not a spark of individuality in each of us which can be held responsible for everything which we choose to do? Can an angry man teach himself to be calmer, or a lazy man force himself to struggle out of his inertia? Perhaps, but if his ability to do this is not inbuilt into his genes or taught him at some stage in his life then where does it come from? From that inner voice which urges us to do better, the conscience which pushes us away from bad deeds and towards good ones? And is this not taught us at some point in life, through our parents or our teachers or the media? Is our access to these influences not also governed by luck?
I find these questions very difficult to answer, and the answer I always come to is the same: we are all products of chance, and our luck is assigned to us by fate, leaving us almost powerless to change it. This doesn't mean I will stop trying to be a better person, or that I will encourage people not to try to better themselves. It does mean, however, that at the end of the day, we are stuck with our genetically created, impressionable, bodies and our free will is limited, if not non existent.
I do not believe in a soul, but perhaps if I did, this would answer the problem - God's gift to us of free will allows us to create our own destiny. Even if this was my belief, however, I think i would find it a bit difficult to accept that I had total free will - when I couldn't help bursting into tears, for example, or saw a kid who lacked the self-control to be quiet in class because he had never been taught to listen. If God really sorts the sheep from the goats on the last day, I think this is grossly unfair. Since God knew exactly how each human being would turn out, he deliberately created some sheep and some goats; some bad and some good humans; and condemned the goats to hell before he even put them on earth.
I think the North American proverb is very apt - we can never judge another person until we have actually inhabited their mental space. If I had the same genetic makeup, upbringing and life as Hitler, who is to say I wouldn't do exactly the same as he did. And as God's own son told us,
It seems to me, that people are not really so different from these sheep and goats. Each person is a product of his genetic make-up, which he cannot change, a product of his upbringing and history (i.e. nurture), which he also cannot change, and a product of his circumstances, which are again usually beyond his control. These factors combine in many different ratios to produce a finished person with a certain character - a propensity for anger, a compassionate nature, or a tendency to give up easily, for example. In order to suggest that a person has any "free will" or ability to combat these influential factors, we need to posit a self-determined force, an individual spirit independent of nature, nurture and circumstance.
This is getting quite philosophical, so let me give an example. Take, for instance, a jobless man. His lack of a job may be put down to laziness. There are obviously many other reasons why he might be unemployed, but let's keep it simple for now. Why might he be lazy? Firstly, he might have laziness inbuilt in his genes- his father and grandfather were lazy, he has inherited their laziness. Is this his fault? Could he overcome it? Perhaps, if he was sufficiently taught by, for instance, his mother, how to overcome his laziness. If he didn't have a helpful mother, however, is this his fault? He could not change his upbringing but perhaps he could find a mentor elsewhere, in the form of a teacher or friend? This is down to chance or circumstance, and is again, not his fault.
Are we, then, never to be blamed for our actions? Is there not a spark of individuality in each of us which can be held responsible for everything which we choose to do? Can an angry man teach himself to be calmer, or a lazy man force himself to struggle out of his inertia? Perhaps, but if his ability to do this is not inbuilt into his genes or taught him at some stage in his life then where does it come from? From that inner voice which urges us to do better, the conscience which pushes us away from bad deeds and towards good ones? And is this not taught us at some point in life, through our parents or our teachers or the media? Is our access to these influences not also governed by luck?
I find these questions very difficult to answer, and the answer I always come to is the same: we are all products of chance, and our luck is assigned to us by fate, leaving us almost powerless to change it. This doesn't mean I will stop trying to be a better person, or that I will encourage people not to try to better themselves. It does mean, however, that at the end of the day, we are stuck with our genetically created, impressionable, bodies and our free will is limited, if not non existent.
I do not believe in a soul, but perhaps if I did, this would answer the problem - God's gift to us of free will allows us to create our own destiny. Even if this was my belief, however, I think i would find it a bit difficult to accept that I had total free will - when I couldn't help bursting into tears, for example, or saw a kid who lacked the self-control to be quiet in class because he had never been taught to listen. If God really sorts the sheep from the goats on the last day, I think this is grossly unfair. Since God knew exactly how each human being would turn out, he deliberately created some sheep and some goats; some bad and some good humans; and condemned the goats to hell before he even put them on earth.
I think the North American proverb is very apt - we can never judge another person until we have actually inhabited their mental space. If I had the same genetic makeup, upbringing and life as Hitler, who is to say I wouldn't do exactly the same as he did. And as God's own son told us,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye
1 comment:
I could not have put it better myself - literally. This sums up what I have thought for a long time but do not have the literary ability to express. It ties in with my problem about the "chosen people". If God is the father of all mankind, how can he choose just some of his children for salvation? And if some are chosen, does that mean the rest are wasting their time trying to be good? Where does that leave earthly morality? It has to be more than a path to heaven. Surely it has to provide guidelines for life here on earth.
But just because we have limited free will does not mean we should not be responsible for our actions, or punished if we break the law. Everyone has a duty to behave to the best of their ability, but should not be judged if they fail - simply punished or helped in order to enable society to function. That is why, amongst other reasons, I do not believe in capital punishment. No man deserves to die for faults he cannot help, tho he cannot be allowed to inflict his weaknesses on others.
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