Saturday, November 10, 2012

Right or Wrong?

The first sin of man goes to the book of Genesis. The act was simple enough, but the consequences were dire. By disobeying an order of God, God sentenced man to eternal death and physical death. To this day, everyone lives with the curse of Adam and Eve:


One day, we will die.


At least, we did not leave the garden of Eden without a little something. God gave a few skins for clothing, the serpent had an eternal grudge against us and our ancestral parents left with the knowledge of the good and evil. And we probably have been using this knowledge of good and evil to help us make moral decisions in life.



Which brings us to the eternal conflict that mankind has been in-between for millennia: The fight between good and evil and deciding of what is right and wrong; of discerning what is the truth from what is false and bringing order away from chaos. And the reason why this war is so important for us is that we know this: Only one side will win. The other side will fail. 

This is what religion is about. This is what morality is about. This is what ethics is about; what laws and rules are about; what decision making is about. It is about influencing others to take a side in order to empower them to take the front against the opposition and stand for what is right.

But what is right for one may not be right for others. This day and age morality has been declared subjective and merely a belief of preference. To help the weak or to destroy them is seen now like the choice to wear blue or yellow shirts. We choose our own personal morality and it is up for the rest of society to conform to our ways.

What this has done is broken down authority and empowered chaos among individuals. In emphasizing individual conformity over social conformity, we evoke hostility- not competition, and manipulation- not cooperation. We have belittled good and evil from a good and evil for all into my good and my evil. And with such short-sighted beliefs, the serpent has seen us ripe for the picking.

We have the capacity to discern. We can filter what is right and what is wrong. But as we gain experience, we begin to think that "No one is right, and everyone is wrong" when at truth "Everyone is sometimes right and everyone is sometimes wrong," but from the wrongs of others we assume the former clause as a means to strengthen our own righteousness.

Here's the truth: The more you think you are right, the more likely you are wrong.
People fail. Everyone fails. Our parents fail us. Our teachers fail us. Our presidents fail us. Our religious leaders fail us. And often we believe God fails us. But what we must not forget is that we too can fail.

No one is perfect, except for a perfect God. We have to realize that our sense of right and wrong will not always be true. Before we judge others, we must learn to judge ourselves before their eyes. We must see our faults before we focus on the faults of others.

We must seek to be right while knowing we may be wrong.

We must seek the truth.