INTRODUCTION
There are several secular scientific theories regarding the origins of morality from the framework of Evolutionary Psychology, formerly known as or in response to, Sociobiology, and in particular the Sociological and Psychological views. Whether considering Jonathan Haidt’s[1] mechanisms of morality view, Edward O. Wilson’s[2] “ought” biological view, Heinz Pagels’[3] view, the Game Theory[4] view, Adler’s theories[5], Hume’s[6] theories, or various elements of the Darwinian theory, they all have common secular threads which are built upon flawed paradigms, as I will show. Interestingly, the more modern (later) secular scientific theories often incorporate views proffered by much earlier philosophers, e.g., Hume, Newton, Bacon, Nietzsche, Hobbes, Epicurus, etc. Thus, the question must be asked, “Why?” to which I will also offer an answer. Conversely, there are also many scientists (e.g., Michael Rivero – New Realities: “The Big Bang is Just Religion Disguised as Science”, Tom Van Flandern – Dark Matter, etc., William C. Mitchell – The Cult of the Big Bang, Eric J. Lerner – Big Bang Never Happened, Halton Arp – Seeing Red Shift: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science,
[1] Top News from the University of Virginia: “Revealing the Origins of Morality—Good and Evil, Liberal and Conservative”, etc.
[2] Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
[3] The Search for the Beginning of Time, etc.
[4] Prisoner’s Dilemma
[5] Individual Psychology
[6] The Cambridge Companion on Hume
Geoff Hazelhurst – On Truth and Reality, etc.) that controvert mainstream secular scientific views as well as some philosophers that purport a more non-scientific (metaphysical and/or divine) explanation as to the source and essence of morality, particularly as it relates to cause, reaching back into antiquity. The antiquity list of thinkers includes both secular and theistic scholars. The most famous Semitic ethicist in early antiquity is Moses of Egypt, with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Rab Yahushua Mashiyach, Paul of Tarsus, John the Revelator, et al., appearing in later antiquity. More recent theorists, beginning from the Middle Ages (Medieval), onward to the Dark Ages, to the Renaissance, to the Enlightenment, to the Romantic Period, and up to the extended Modernity Period, include such notables as St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, John Calvin, Rene’ Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Samuel Clarke, Kant, Nietzsche and far too many more to list here. Most of the latter three groups are more closely linked to biological views than the former groups, showing the influence that recent secular science has had on modern philosophers and theologians alike.
As I will show, literature seems to strongly suggest that every society has had a form of morality (and some form of ethics), usually as it relates to religion, since the dawn of time. Although some scholars suggest solely biological sources of the origins of morality, others suggest solely divine sources. But I will demonstrate that a combination or convergence of two sources, both nature and divinity, more aptly applies.
Even the atheist accepts moral codes that emerge from religion and scripture, not because of their origin but because they make social sense. However, modern secular views on the origins of morality, both secular and theistic, have underpinnings that go much deeper than surface biology, sociology or religion and are inextricably linked to the earliest of writings on the subject, whether secularists or theists acknowledged it or not. It seems as though a moral “collective consciousness,” that began millennia ago, continues to influence philosophers throughout the continuum of written thought on morality. Said roots reach backward well beyond Darwinian thought and Enlightenment philosophers.
Finally, the views on the origins of morality inevitably link to discussions on cause, i.e., arguments that contemplate the origins of the universe and whether or not it was caused or uncaused. The outcomes of these arguments directly or indirectly impact on the thinking of theorists who contemplate the origins or morality because views on causation influence and provide a foundation on which moral philosophers build their theories. If these outcomes are flawed, then the moral theories themselves, developed by moral theorists that build on the credibility of these outcomes, are inherently flawed as well. Just as discussions on the origins of morality reach backward to antiquity, so do the discussions on causation reach backward to views well before those of modern cosmologists, like Georges Lemaitre, Einstein, and Hubble, etc., scientists that influence modern moral philosophers.
Therefore, given that most moral philosophers consider causation at some level when contemplating the origins of morality, an examination of cause (views on origins of the universe) will come first (Chapter 1), both secular and theistic views, then Chapter 2 will explore popular secular scientific views and paradigms regarding the origins of biological life, both historical and modern views, both secular and theistic, as well as their inherent flaws. In Chapter 3 - 5 I will present secular views on the origins of morality as well as alternative, consilient and convergent views/paradigms that will provide a contrast to the secular views (and some theistic views) as it relates to views on cause/causation, as it relates to views on the origins of the universe and views on the origins of biological life; these alternative views spring from a scriptural perspective (see glossary for Hebrew and Greek meanings). Finally in Chapters 6 -7 I will provide discussions on how one can acquire elevated enlightenment, beyond the collective consciousness.
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