Superstitions

It's bad luck to walk under a ladder. This came from the early Christian belief that a leaning ladder formed a triangle with the wall and ground. You must never violate the Holy Trinity by walking through a triangle, lest you be considered in league with the devil. (And you all know what good Christians did to people they suspected of being in league with the devil.)

Beware of Friday the Thirteenth. Those who know about these things, inform us that Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden on a Friday, Noah's flood started on a Friday, and Christ was crucified on a Friday. Christians also noted that twelve witches plus one devil are present at Satanic ceremonies so Friday and 13 make a deadly combination.

God Bless You. During the sixth century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because they were expelling evil from their bodies. Later, when a great plague took hold of Europe, and people began sneezing violently, the Pope passed a law. Since sneezing meant that the person was going to die of plague, people were required to bless the sneezer.

Don't spill the salt. Although some people believe that Judas spilt salt during the last supper, this claim can't be proven. Salt was a very precious expensive commodity in the middle ages. It was also used for medicinal purposes. If you spilled any, you must immediately throw it over your left shoulder to strike the nasty spirits in the eye, thus preventing sickness.

Wear a St. Christopher Medal when you travel. Historians don't believe there ever was a Saint Christopher.

Black cats are evil. In ancient Egypt, the Goddess Bast, was a black female cat. Christian priests wanted to wipe out all traces of other religions so convinced their ignorant followers to destroy the evil demons that were black cats. While they were at it, they destroyed the kindly little old ladies who cared for the cats believing them to be witches.

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home. It is bad luck to kill a ladybug because it represents the Virgin Mary.

Pie In The Sky. Of course, this means to search for the impossible dream but it originated in the early 1900's. A famous labor organizer named Joe Hill was extremely critical of the clergy's treatment of slaves. He wrote a tune called 'The Preacher and the Slave" accusing the clergy of making false promises of a better life in heaven while people starved on earth. The song goes: 'Work and pray, live on hay. You'll get pie in the sky when you die. That's a lie!'

Skin Of Your Teeth. This saying means to barely escape from a harrowing situation. It comes from Job 19:20, where God inflicts all sorts of terrible things on one of those who love him. Poor Job had all his animals stolen, his children die, his house collapse and his body covered with sores. Job has this to say; "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."

Fleshpot. - Today 'fleshpot' describes decadence. In the time of Moses, it was a large pot in which to boil meat. Somehow, preachers managed to change the meaning to scare their flock about 'sins of the flesh'.

To make a scapegoat. - The poor scapegoat gets the punishment for everyone else's mistakes. God condoned this cruelty to animals in Leviticus 16:7-10 "And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other for the scapegoat." The scapegoat got to escape, and carry the tribe's sins into the wilderness, to be eaten by some animal instead of being offered alive as a sacrifice for the Lord.

Christmas and the Star of Bethlehem. - There is no historical evidence that Christ was born on December 25th. December 25th was officially adopted by Bishop Liberius of Rome in 354. December 25th occurs during the rainy season in the Holy Land, so it is highly unlikely that shepherds would be outside in their pastures. The Hayden Planetarium in New York recreated the heavens as they were in the time that Christ was allegedly born. Although nothing spectacular happened in the skies on the date of Christ's birth, the Planetarium went back to the year 6 B.C. On that date, there were three stars in close proximity which created a spectacularly bright beacon, which may account for the stories of the Star of Bethlehem. The most plausible reason that December 25 was chosen as a day to celebrate Christ's birth was that the Christian fathers were trying to compete with another growing religion, Mithraism - the worship of a sun god - whose holy day was also December 25.

Easter - The name "Easter' derives from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon dawn goddess. She was traditionally honored at the beginning of spring. Easter wasn't celebrated in North America until after the Civil War when religious leaders decided that the country needed a holiday which stressed rebirth.

"The courage to Be" by Paul Tillich,1952

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Considered from the ethical point of view,
courage in a man is a sign of his caring for something enough to decide and to act despite opposition ;
considered in terms of its effect on his being -ontologically-,
courage is the self-affirmation of one's being.
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These points of view are united in the conception of courage as the self-affirmation of one's being in the presence of the threat of nonbeing ;
anxiety is the felt awareness of the threat of nonbeing,
and courage is the resolute opposition to the threat in such a manner that being is affirmed.
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Three types of anxiety :
ontic,-the anxiety of fate and death,
moral,-the anxiety of guilt and condemnation-and
spiritual,-the anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness-,
are present in all cultural ages,
but spiritual anxiety is predominant in the modern period.
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Existential anxiety cannot be removed ;
it can be faced only by those who have the courage to be.
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The courage to be involves the courage to participate,to be oneself,
and to unite the two by absolute faith in the God above God,
"being-itself".
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"Zen Buddhism" by Daiser T.Suzuli,1949

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(Selections by Editor Wiliam Barrett from works published during the years 1949-1955)
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Zen is a way of life,of seeing and knowing by looking into one's own nature.
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The truth comes through active meditation,and enlightenment is sudden and intuitive.
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Zen does not rely on the intellect,the scriptures,or the written word,
but on a direct pointing at the soul of man,
a seeing into one's own nature as making Buddhahood possible.
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Zen masters make the moment of enlightenment -satori- possible by referring directly to some natural and commonplace matter ;
the immediate recognition of the unity of being follows.
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The chief characteristics of satori are irrationality,intuitive insight,authoritativeness,affirmation,a sense of the Beyond,an impersonal tone,
a feeling of exaltation,and momentariness.
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The methods of Zen are paradox,going beyond the opposites,contradiction,affirmation,repetition,exclamation,silence,or direct action
-such as a blow,or pointing-.
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"Ethics and Language" by Charles Leslie Stevenson,1944

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Ethical disagreements usually involve both
disagreement in belief and
disagreement in attitude,
but disagreement in attitude is the distinctive element in ethical disputes.
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The judgment "This is good" usually functions both as the expression of an attitude and as an injunction ; it is roughly equivalent to,
"I approve of this ; do so as well".
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Ethical judgments are justified by the submission of reasons for acting ;
if the reasons do not appeal to the persons to whom they are addressed,
and if there is no disagreement in belief,nothing can be done by the use of reasons.
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No one explanation of the function of such a word as "good" is possible ;
emotive meanings are not so much defined as characterized,
and they vary according to the context.
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"This is good",according to a second pattern of analysis.
means that the object has a particular set of qualities or relations in virtue of which the speaker approves of the object ;
the hearer tends to be encouraged to approve also.
-Such a definition is normally persuasive ;
it alters descriptive meanings in order to redirect attitudes-.
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"An Idealist view of Life" by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,1932

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The ideal world,
which alone is real,lies beyond the phenomenal world of appearance,yet dominates it ;
the center of the universe is the transcendent,the Absolute,Brahma.
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Intuition is the way to an integral apprehension of ultimate reality ;
it is a knowledge by identity which transcends the distinction between subject and object.
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Scientific certainty is not the only kind of certainty available to men ;
but in considering the mystical revelation as a source of certainty,
one must distinguish between the content of the experience and the interpretation of it,for interpretation is historically conditioned and liable to error.
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The scientific view of the inorganic world and of life and mind is more compatible with idealism than with naturalism.
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:The two sources of Morality and Religion" by Henri Bergson,1932

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There are two kinds of morality :
compulsive morality and
ideal morality.
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There are two kinds of religion :
popular religion and
dynamic religion.
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Corresponding to the two kinds of morality and the two kinds of religion are :
two kinds of societies :
the closed and
the open,
and two kinds of souls :
the enslaved and
the free.
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The two sources of morality and religion are the practical needs of men and societies and the idealistic impulse.
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Men rise above the static patterns of compulsive moralities and popular religions,
achieving freedom in open societies,when they recapture,
through mystical intuition,their original vital impetus.
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"The destiny of Man" by Nikolai Berdyaev,1931

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Ethical knowledge is a way of being ;
it is different from scientific knowledge
in that it is not knowledge about objects or events.
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Freedom is necessary to morality ;
it is the primeval abyss out of which all distinctions arise ;
it is the condition of being itself.
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Without a theodicy
-a justification of God in a universe of which evil is a disturbing part-
there can be no ethics :
the only satisfactory theodicy is one in which God is shown as subject to an uncreated freedom.
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Without an adequate theory of man,there can be no ethics :
the only satisfactory philosophical anthropology is one in which man is shown as a personality,a being capable of transcending his natural and social world.
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There is an element of the demonic in man ;
to overcome the demonic,to make creativity possible,man must be deified through the presence of God in time.
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"Problems of Ethics" by Moritz Schlick,1930

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Ethics is a science in that it is the effort to acquire knowledge about the right and the good.
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We use the term "good" to recommend something as desired by society ;
by discovering what is desired,one is able to define the good.
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Human being choose to perform whatever actions most appeal to them as they consider the possibilities.
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Moral valuations are emotional reactions according to normal expectations concerning the pleasant or unpleasant consequences of performing certain acts.
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Values and obligations are relative to the desires of persons,
and they are objective in the sense that,as a matter of facts,
human beings do prefer some things to others.
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A free will is not an undetermined will ;
it is a will which is not compelled.
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"The Right and the Good" by William David Ross,1930

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Rightness and goodness are simple and unanalyzable properties ;
they cannot be explained in terms of feelings,
nor are they scientifically discoverable.
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We cannot discover value or rightness by the use of the senses ;
such properties are discoverable only by intellectual intuition.
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Basic moral truths are invariant ;
they are not products of various cultures.
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The claim that "right" means "productive of the greatest possible good" is mistaken,
for some acts -such as keeping a promise- are right regardless of whether they are productive of the greatest possible good.
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Moral principles,discoverable by anyone who is intellectually nature,
fall into a moral order ; but the moral order cannot specifically be stated,
for the resolution of conflicts between moral principles must be made in the light of particular circumstances.
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"Ethics" by Nikolai Hartmann,1926

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Ideal principles influence real things ;
values and obligations have autonomous being in the realm of essence,
but provide human beings with the foundations of morality.
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Valuational insights are possible to men of moral genius who discern new value complexes.
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There is a determinate order among values ;
although values are relative to persons,
they have objective status.
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Moral values are realized by seeking to secure such nonmoral values as intelligence,health and equality.
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The three principal branches of the good are :
the noble,
richness of experience,and
purity.
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Moral law can bind the will without determining it because the will operates under the influence of moral obligation,on a plane between the physical and the ideal.
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"Human Nature and Conduct" by John Dewey,1922

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Moralities of the past were deficient in that they were based on ordinary rules rather than on a scientific understanding of human nature as formed within a social environment.
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Human nature is continuous with the rest of nature ;
ethics is thus allied with physics and biology,and with sociology,law,and economics.
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Vices and virtues are habits developed during the interaction of the human organism and the social environment.
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Morals are ways of action invented to meet specific situations,
reactions to them become habits and acquire prescriptive character.
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Education must enable the organism to modify its behavior in the face of novelty.
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Reflection upon conduct has as its objective the satisfying resolution of a problem arising from the incompatability of various impulses.

"Principia Ethica" by George Edward Moore,1903

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The adjective "good" names an indefinable,unanalyzable,simple,unique property.
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The term "naturalistic fallacy" is applied to any theory which attempts a definition of good,for if good is simple,it has no parts to be distinguished by definition.
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Sometimes the value of a whole is not simply the sum of the values of ita parts.
[The Principle of Organic Unities.]
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One's duty,in any particular situation,is to do that action which will cause more good than any possible alternative.
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The ideal good is a state of consciousness in which are combined
the pleasures of aesthetic contemplation and
the pleasures of admiring generous qualities in other persons.
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"The Will to Believe" by William James,1897

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Decisions between hypotheses proposed to our belief are genuine options when
they are living (of vital concern to us),
forced (no third alternative is possible),
and momentous (presenting a unique opportunity of considerable importance).
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Whenever a genuine option cannot be settled on intellectual grounds,
it is right and necessary to settle it according to our passional inclinations.
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The religious option concerning the belief in God is a genuine option which promises most to the person who has the passional need to take the world religiously.
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Men possess free wills which are not determined ;
determinism -the theory that decisions are causally determined-
fails to account for the sense of human freedom.
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"Collected Essays" by Thomas Henry Huxley,1893

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Not only has science had practical benefits,
but also it has brought about a revolution in man's conception of man and of his place in the universe.
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Education is learning the rules of the game of life ;
the educated man possesses skills,
a trained intellect,and knowledge of facts ;
but he is no ascetic.
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There is but one kind of knowledge,and that is to be found in the verifiable conclusions of the natural sciences.
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Although all life has a protoplasmatic basis,
it is an error to conclude that materialism is superior to spiritualism ;
the fact is that both theories involve empty and unverifiable conceptions.
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It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the truth of a proposition unless he can produce evidence,and it is wrong to demand belief from others when evidence is not available to substantiate the belief.
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Nature is nonmoral ;
to make progress man cannot count on evolutionary processes ;
he must use his best energies and his intelligence.
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"Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche,1886

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Ideas which preserve life and add to a man's power are more important than
ideas sanctioned by logicians and seekers after the absolute.
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The metaphysical interest in the freedom of the will
should give way to an interest in the strength of the will.
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Men must turn conventional values upside down in order to live creatively ;
the established values of society were invented by the weak to enable them to triumph over strong.
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Scientific minds are weak when they fail to pass judgment ;
whoever denies the will,denies the power of life.
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Progress in life is possible only if there are men of action who have the courage to trust will and instinct ; new values arise which go beyond conventional good and evil when the will to power asserts itself.
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"Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche,

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Life is the will to power,
and he would truly live must overcome the beliefs and conventions of common men ;
he must become an overmen.
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Those who teach the Christian virtues of pity and meekness seek to corrupt man,
to destroy his will to power,
and to make him submit to those who prosper from conventional way.
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Men who do not have the courage to live seek to escape by sleeping,
by prizing the soul more than the body,
and by seeking peace instead of war.
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The overman is virtuous when he frees himself from the belief in God and from the hope of an afterlife ;
he is nauseated by the rabble,and his joy comes from surpassing those who live by false hopes and beliefs.
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Worship of any sort is a return to childhood ;
if men must worship,let them worship donkeys if that suits them.
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"Prolegomena to Ethics" by Thomas Hill Green,1883

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Nature is dependent upon a self-distinguishing consciousness that is prior to finite minds.
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Human consciousness stands between nature and the divine consciousness ;
man is free because he has understanding and the capacity to will.
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The Utilitarians are mistaken in claiming that pleasure is the greatest good ;
man's good is whatever satisfies man when,as a moral being,
he is motivated by the ideal of realizing his capacities,
the divine in him.
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Virtue,
rather than pleasure,
is the moral good.
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"Ethical Studies" by Francis Herbert Bradley,1876

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To be morally responsible a person must be intelligent,
capable of making moral distinctions,un-coerced,
and actively involved in a situation in which not all of his behavior is predictable in advance.
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To ask,"Why should I moral ?" is to ask a senseless question,
for it presupposes the instrumentality of moral action.
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The sense in which morality as an end in itself is an end for man is that through moral action man realizes himself.
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Self-realization is a creative process whereby a self,
which is a unity,aims at the higher unity made possible through social cooperation with others.
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"The methods of Ethics" by Henry Sidgwick,1874

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Modern man uses three different methods of ethics,
three ways of resolving moral problems :
egoism,
intuitionism,and
utilitarianism.
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Egoistic hedonism,
the theory that one ought to seek his own pleasure,
is one of the natural methods of ethics ;
its primary disadvantage is the difficulty of measuring and evaluating pleasures.
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The ethics of right and duty employs an a priori method,
utilizing intuition,
or direct cognition,
as a way of discovering duties ;
but it is difficult to find moral principles
that do not need qualification and
that do not admit exceptions.
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Certain moral principles are manifestly true :
the principle of impartiality,
the principle of prudence,and
the principle of benevolence.
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Utilitarianism is true to the principles of impartiality and benevolence ;
but it is difficult to recognize egoism and utilitarianism.
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"Utilitarianism" by John Stuart Mill

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Those acts are right and good which produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of persons.
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An act derives its moral worth not from its form but from its utility.
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Although it is the intrinsic worth of pleasure which gives value to acts conductive to pleasure,some pleasures are better than others in quality.
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The proof of the value of pleasure is that it is desired,and the proof of the claim that some pleasures are better than others is that experienced,rational men prefer some pleasures to others.
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Justice is the appropriate name for certain social utilities by which the general good is realized.