Without morality

  Teaching history. It's something we hear a great deal about these days. It just seems like the focus on our history has changed somewhat since I was in school. I'm being told how I was misled, and the facts weren't all what I was told. The whole educational system was discriminatory, biased, and only for white people. Well, it was white people that established this nation for the most part. Those people were teaching about history from their point of view. Was it some insidious plan, a deliberate attempt to write history in favor of the white guys? As I said, the white guys established the country so yeah, they wanted to tell the story the way they saw that. I'm not really surprised by any of that. When I write about my life, my history, I do the same thing. My parents, my siblings and my friends may have a different history to tell. 

  What is the purpose of teaching history? History is there for us to learn from is a popular adage. For many people that means it is there for us to change. The thought being, we did that, and this was the result so now we need to do something different. Einstein is credited with saying "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The truth is there is no evidence, no proof that he ever said that. Millions of people have repeated that without ever having fact checked it. History has lied to us all. We should have learned from that, but we haven't, we keep repeating history. That sure sounds familiar, doesn't it? History repeats itself. It's one of those things you can't refute even when it is uncomfortable. The reason history repeats itself is because people haven't changed all that much in 300,000 years as far as our motivations. 

  What motivated the American revolution. I was taught about the injustices imposed upon the people by the crown. I was told about taxation without representation is tyranny. I read about the stamp act, the tax on tea and British oppression. I wasn't told it was because the rich guys in America were having their businesses hurt by all of that. No, I was only told about the injustice of it all. It wasn't injustice that started the revolution however, it was money. The ones organizing that weren't the working class, they were the upper class. The ones with the money, influence and education. Same thing applies today although us peasants can make our voices heard a lot easier today, not that it changes much. Well until a revolution occurs anyway. 

  The thing with history is, we should learn from it, but we are studying the wrong thing. We should learn what motivates people to act in the way they do and change the way we react to those motivations. But that, that is purpose of religion, to fundamentally change our interaction with other people. To treat others as we want to be treated. That isn't what motivates us however, we want others to react the way we want them to. That is the purpose of politics, to manipulate opinions. Our founding fathers attempted to change the political system with the establishment of this Constitutional Republic. It wasn't the first in history contrary to what you may have been told. 

       “There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.” –(John Quincy Adams) 

  Government establishes the morality of a nation. In our Constitutional Republic the first amendment prohibits the government from the establishment of religion. What were the writers of that legislation thinking about? They were thinking about how "religions" had been used to control citizens in the past. They were thinking about how in the words of Epictetus "All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven in his own way" The objective still being, to get to heaven. It's clear that the founding fathers were well aware of the influence of government and civil law on the actions and reactions of man. There were also aware that you cannot legislate morality. It is the absence of morality that will destroy a nation. Without morality virtue cannot exist. 

  That the big deception today is that you can be virtuous without any moral guidance. Moral guidance is the purpose of all religious practices. No one religion is superior to all others, there is no set rule. That is why the first amendment was written. The first amendment doesn't prohibit religion, it endorses all religions.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other  (John Adams) That is the lesson we should be learning from history, all history. In our Constitutional Republic it was decided that the morality of the nation would be left up to the people. That's the big experiment. Will it work? Well, if history is a guide the odds aren't in our favor. That is if we continue to think of our government as a Democracy. It isn't. Learn that lesson from history and we just might stand a chance. Remember this is what John Quincy Adams had to say,  “There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments." Our constitution is only adequate to a moral and religious people. You do have to have morality before the religious part of that equation.