Moral Choices: Choosing Survival Is Moral

While it is true that one does not have to believe in God to hold moral values, the religious teachers have a basis from which to assert right from wrong. From the Old Testament to the Bible, Thou Shall Not Kill is as plain English as you can get. An Atheist might suggest that he or she holds that same moral principle, but he or she does not accept Christian consequences. Therein, lies the line; or the ease of crossing the line; from basic corruption to higher crimes. It might be why many a convicted, incarcerated and possibly on death row adopts religion, because few can forgive, and most are suspicious of the repented. Some wait until they're at the end of the rope to consider the possibility that they have been wrong.

I am a sinner, only because there are tenets of Christianity that I have not adhered to completely. For example, the last or 10th commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his house. I also covet my neighbor's car and his wonderful Christmas decorations, which outdo the entire block. But I do pray to God for forgiveness, and I thank God for the day I had. I'm not perfect, and I'm working hard at becoming more civil.

I part ways from many believers and non-believers on killing animals (hunting). I was 11 years old when I started hunting on my own, and I might have been 6 when I first threw a hooked worm into a river. My Dad allowed me the use of his .28 (like a .12 gauge buck shot) and .22 rifles (small animals), and my friend Jean-Claude let me use his .303 (good for bears, deer, moose, etc). I would disappear in my New Brunswick backyard with its miles of forest, for many summer days. One cannot really hunt big game at that young age and without some heavy equipment to bring the prize home. So I brought wild pheasants and rabbits back to the house. My sister Simone disapproved completely. I would leave home with some cheese and chocolates for food, and I would feed myself with what I fished, snared or killed, with the occasional delicacies of hazelnuts, berries and cherries. The first few nights were a little scary, but it was later that I began to fear more a quiet forest than a noisy one. I was never in the boy scouts, but I had my big brother Moe's scout hand book with me at all times. My biggest fear was that my hunted game would attract hungry bears or wolves, even with the .303 by my side. I never mastered rubbing the sticks for fire, so I carried matches, along with my compass and a 6-inch blade.

My Dad taught me to bag my game and hang it between 2 trees, and to place small dead branches, twigs and the like all around, if there were none there. This way, I would hear if any creature was headed for my stash, and even a climbing bear would not be able to figure out how to get to it. The first time I did this, it took me almost an hour to do, because the idea is to have the bag in the middle, and not close to either tree. In subsequent expeditions, I brought homemade bags (empty 50 lb potato sacks) with shower curtain rings straight from the bathroom. I would use the 2 or 3 sacks as a bedding to put my sleeping bag on.

The point to all of this is that, all else being equal, I can survive in North American forests, and I can find my way to wherever I'm going. I know what to do to survive, including killing, gutting and cooking animals, how to keep warm (and dry), and where and how to get water when there is no creek, no river and no lake nearby (up to 2 pints naturally purified each day!). I have my father to thank, God rest his soul. My Dad was the kindest and most gentle man I have yet to know, so don't get the wrong idea about him. He once raised some chickens like a small time chicken farmer. He must have had about 20 of them. He had a name for each one, and he would feed them just like he fed squirrels and any other animal that came around scouting. He gave the eggs away to neighbors, just like he gave away most of the vegetables he grew, because he could only boil and can so many. When it came time for the chickens to die, he killed them all while crying and apologizing to each and every one. He never continued the chicken farm because it was too heartbreaking for him.

When people no longer know what to do to survive, can no longer realize what is good and what is bad for them, is when they mark they're own end. For anyone, any animal to survive, the natural instincts must be maintained, even when on given days there is plenty to go around. The day will come, when events will call on your survival instincts, and they better be sharp. In most cases, speaking from experience, you are required to make a very quick decision, with enough assertion to follow through. I'm talking about when the consequences of inaction are direr than the consequences of the action itself.

This brings me back to moral values, God, and religion. Despite ideological preferences, I believe that for any ideology to work, be it democracy, fascism, communism or what have you, if the populace in general do not know (or believe) right from wrong, its governmental franchise will fail. Failure will arise due mostly through corruption. Although some believe that democracies tend to have less corruption, there is still plenty to go around. As a collective, humanity can do very little good unless it is motivated through a solid sense of good versus evil. National identity is not enough, because over many years, populations have become complacent, narcissistic, and have lost their sense of survival (where they no longer know what is good and what is bad for them).

The political pendulum of leftist and right-wing in democracies attempt to take stakes on moral grounds in a good versus evil battle, as in corrupt and less corrupt camps are the only choices. Evangelists, and religious groups work to rein in moral values and to give a greater sense of life to a raging rat race. To me, that is a noble cause, because most people seek more out of life. In many, this is an awakening period, which arrives close to their 40th birthday. This mid-life crisis can last up to 10 years in men, and up to 5 years in women. If you are an otherwise young person, less than 35 years old, you are less likely to believe in this phenomenon. It's a different story for many, at or near 40, who are inclined to view that two thirds of their lives have past, and suddenly become motivated to make drastic changes. The pendulum of conservatism and liberalism then swings in individuals as it does in the political state. Entire eras are cast and outdone as in the Victorian (extreme conservatism) and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt conservative (Democrat) era, to the ultra-liberal Clinton Presidency. Conservatism is fronded upon as some form of shackle, belonging to a distant and past era. Liberalism is cast as avant-garde and progressive.

If a person has lived his or her life in a mostly conservative doctrine, a more liberal attitude might be the mid-life adjustment, or vice-versa. In terms of strictness or less strict dogmas, these are indeed valid choices, for the persona. Many child sex victims have fallen prey to men in their 40's, who have had a sudden moral values modification. Others marry women half their age and accept or allow things they never would have, say when they were 20 years of age.

The moral values of an entire nation is reflected on the sum total moral values of its populace, regardless of some elected official's behavior or statements. And regardless of the Free Speech Estate which attempts to brainwash the citizenry into either liberalism or conservatism points of view. So it's not up to the state, nor is it up to the church, but it's up to each individual. Even the laws of a country, which permits or prohibits, are enacted and repealed; upheld or twisted from a country's founding constitution (if it has one), from one era to the next.

Our individual actions result in consequences that are not always obvious and neither immediate. We must cooperate and teach ourselves with clarity, the lessons of survival and history. It's not good enough to pontificate on ideology or left versus right. It must be about life or death, and the continuance of humanity. You may believe in God, but you may still be immoral; or you may not believe in God and consider yourself more moral than many. Most will be at death's door before they complete their own personal moral inventory. We live in a fast world, and we die just as quickly.

"Why?" many ask God, is there so much pain and suffering in this world. Why are so many malnourished and afflicted with disease? If God answered you directly, neither you nor I could accept any answer. If God answered he would lose credibility at this stage of humanity. What's left is what we do and what we don't do; what we allow and what we do not allow, because we have free will. Atheists do not understand this, and it is why many forsake God altogether. This world is great, has its own cleaning cycles, converts all that lives and all that lived before, and will do so until it dies. There is no such thing as "waste". There is no human capable of creating an Earth, just as there is no human capability of destroying it.

So remove the shackles of guilt. The demand of perfection is for the prefect of God. You will not be perfect tomorrow or any day soon. Striving for perfection is a waste of time and effort, not to mention alienating others from you. Survival today, in this society, is through the pursuit of money, legal or otherwise. A person with morals and principles will not steal, or otherwise step or destroy other men and women whilst in the pursuit. Don't confuse survival with excesses. That could be why one of the 10 commandments is not to covet your neighbors house, wife, dog, car or anything your neighbor has.

You might think I'm stating the obvious, or that this is just common sense. You would be more wrong than I in that thought. When you go out in your car, on any highway, read the redundant signs which permeate the far shoulders: Unsafe to Pass (at the same place the highway has double solid lines), and no U-Turn or No Turns at interstate ramp (which would put you in the wrong direction). One of the worst I've seen is "DUI - You can't afford it", as if the ultimate punishment will be monetary.

Similarly, excuses are cheap and easy to fabricate. If you've had a bad childhood, and you feel your children should suffer equally or worst, then don't have children. If you were molested, attacked or suffered any emotional injury some time in your past, don't assume you have a ticket to molest, attack, kill or even verbally abuse others. Too often we hear that a criminal had a bad childhood, or lived very poor. There is no excuse for decisions you make which you know will harm someone.

Are you an alcoholic, drug addict or both? You don't have a disease. A disease is the impairment of the normal state or functioning of the body as a whole or of any of its parts. Making a bad decision could be confused as a mental deficiency, but the action of deciding to drink or take drugs implies no mental impairment. Clearly, you decided on the Martini over the orange juice full of vitamin C. Clearly, you decided to do that line, rather than eating a chocolate bar. Just because your father, mother or uncle or aunt had a problem does not mean you have to adopt it. Just because your favorite movie star drinks and is otherwise always high on something, doesn't mean you should do the same. Their lives are veritable circus entertainment, if you enjoy watching people who are totally lost destroying themselves and everyone they come into contact with.

Whether you believe in God or not, adopting good moral values and principles will not only build on your character, but if more of us do the same, a stronger nation will arise from this dust of hard work we do, while achieving little. No moral values and no principles would lead you anywhere but in the right path, and to ultimate premature self-destruction.

A nation's citizenry not able distinguish right from wrong and not knowing when and how to defend it, is a nation for not much longer. Lastly, consider how you would survive, if one day, there is no electrical power and/or there is no fuel, for a long time (6 months or more). If you think life is like living in a jungle with crazed wild animals, which amongst us could survive without electricity and fuel for 6 months or more. How immoral would you become then?