Morality without Religion

I recently read in the news about a story involving Harry Potter. The story wasn't about the actors who portrayed the characters and it wasn't about a new conspiracy story about the original books. The story involved a group of individuals who had decided to dissect the books using pod casts so carefully they were dubbed, "Harry Potter and the Sacred Texts."

The article went on to mention the most requested book following the Holy Bible and the Qur'an in Guantanamo Bay is the Harry Potter series. A fictional book detailing a world of magic and an unlikely hero. A relate-able nerdy individual with all the character traits and flaws we find in ourselves. I found it to be a great read in my youth. However I never thought to use it as a guiding light in, for a lack of better term, religious or holy text setting.

This thought led me the think....What drives people to religion? Why do people desire something to give them their moral code? What is it humans intrinsically lack to be able to make their OWN moral code from simply their own personal life experiences?

What drives people to religion?

It is a loaded question. I mean you ask anyone, what brought you to your god or form of worship, and you will get a plethora of answers. Some are searching for moral direction. Some are looking for community. Some use it as a lifeline to understand their existence and place in this world. Some seek it for reasons I couldn't begin to imagine. People give every reason possible for choosing to go to religion. There are some who say religion or a divine being chooses them. I'm not a theologian so I can't give the deeper meanings behind religion. My extent of studying religion in an academic sense extends to an intro to religion for my humanities credit in college. What I can say is I feel religion gives people a rock or a center outside oneself. The reason religion is about "more" is to prevent the all encompassing feeling of loneliness that invades when people are alone.

Why do people desire an external moral code?

Morals and ethics are rules that I feel people begin to develop slowly overtime. Of course each person follows their own unique moral compass, but people base that compass on outside influences.

That doesn't really answer the core question. So to begin with, there is a need for a guiding set of principles in order to make ANY decision in life. When a child makes a decision they use the guiding principles they have been taught thus far to make decisions.

Example: If you have a two year old child and you teach the child that coloring something with a crayon makes it pretty. Then you teach the child that pretty is a positive trait. If the child then colors on the walls, it is because they are using all the logic and reasoning they have available to them at this moment in time. In essence it was both moral and logical to them that coloring on the walls of the house with crayon is a good action.

In the example above you will notice that a parent who discovers crayon marks on the wall will teach the child drawing on walls is bad.

Why do you ask? Well if you think about all the logical reasons:

1. The extra work and money the parent feels is needed to repaint the surface
2. The resell value on the home is diminished if the parent doesn't repaint because someone else will feel the need to paint over the marks
3. The embarrassment of having a wall look "dirty"
4. The possible judgment of other parents that they don't "control" their child
5. The parent not wanting the child to think drawing on walls is okay so when they visit other households the child doesn't draw on the walls

So here we see morals of the parent being driven money, time, other people, internal feeling likely founded in their childhood, and societal behaviors.
The child is now going to adopt the same morals for likely the same reasons if the parent explains why you don't draw on walls. However often, which I feel happens with great frequency, parents will say, "We don't draw on walls, that's a 'no no'. We don't want to make mommy and daddy's walls all dirty. We draw on paper. "

Yet is that the correct moral? There are humans that make a living DRAWING ON WALLS. So then your reasoning is flawed...and lacks logic since the child is bound to see murals at some point in his or her life. If you are going to say no drawing on the walls try to explain in the best terms the child will understand the real reasons behind it. If nothing else, "If you draw on the walls Mommy and Daddy have to spend money on paint and not toys." Something the child understands and also directly impacts them. (Granted you may have to wait until the child is slightly older than two for them to be able to understand some of the morals, but children are MUCH smarter than people credit them. That is a whole other blog post)

Why do humans lack the ability to make their own internal moral code?

The short answer? They don't lack the ability. Every person does have an internal moral code that drives them everyday. I think that the moral code they follow is to be self-serving. Following that train of thought you realize that all human behavior is rational relative to their life experiences, thought process, and genetic capabilities. I will grant you of course some people have chemical problems within their brain that cause their patterns to be a bit more erratic or for them to be unable to go through a decision properly.

I say humans are self-serving, every one of us, because even the kindest person is self-serving. The reason so many charities exist is not because these people couldn't make a system where they help people while turning a profit, or they could help people while being self sustaining. Charities serve society as guilt alleviation vehicles. You give to charity because you want to feel good, you want to help, and you feel the reason they are asking for money is a good one.

What do I believe in, if not religion?

I try to keep my moral compass as straight forward as possible. Do your best to not harm others whenever possible. Laws, human interactions, and every other aspect of society could be improved with that simple rule. I believe in straight forward simplicity. Make knowledge and resources accessible to everyone. Not in the communist sense, but in the average American working hard sense.

A simple act of human kindness can keep someone from becoming a dictator when they grow up, steer a thief away from a life of crime, or be the memory someone hangs onto throughout their whole life when times are tough. Kindness takes no money, usually very little time, and can be given every day.

Less Hate

Why less hate?

There is no answer to this question that is not biased, opinionated, or frankly emotional, but for the sake of this blog I will try to logic through it as much as possible.
The basic answer I can give is to think of the world as an equation. The future and the lives of people around you right now are affected by every action you do. The world is a sum of all past, present, and future actions of it occupants and of the cosmos. 

What does that mean?

In an equation, the whole equals the parts, and the parts equals the whole.

All actions of beings on earth + cosmos = Earth

Since I feel that the Earth is equivalent to this equation, I think that the actions of all beings matters on Earth. 

Here is where and why I think you shouldn't hate. 

1. If you've ever experienced someone being negative or hating, you know how it feels. It never feels pleasant to be on the receiving end of either. Some people seem to derive pleasure from dishing it out, but in the end, I think there is some emptiness that makes them enjoy other people getting upset.
2. In an equation, I'm going to define positive actions as net positive and negative actions as a net negative. Positive actions are not to be equated with people pleasing. Complimenting someone to get something is not necessarily a positive action. In fact it is a selfish action and if the person finds out the reason you complimented them the compliment would be considered a net negative in their eyes.
3. Intention matters more than the action itself. For something to be considered a positive action, the intention must be there to help and not harm. Bad intentions with a good outcome are still not good actions. Eventually actions with bad intentions will lead to bad outcomes and the ends don't always justify the means.
4. You're alive. Things can change this fact, but if you are reading this, and the year is 2016, then you can read English and are in fact alive. If you are alive, then you might be looking to give your life purpose, perhaps not, and then again this might not be a blog post that speaks to you. At any rate, being alive I feel means you need to add net pluses to the equation of life I defined above. To make your life a good one you have to do positive actions throughout your life. If you did more positive than negative actions, then you've lived a good life.

Anyone can achieve this, no matter what.

My favorite part about this philosophy and thought pattern, is you can achieve this life no matter what. No matter what you think your life is or isn't, you can make sure actions you perform with or towards others are positive. That's amazing to me because not everything is currently possible for all people, but through this it could be. Actions have long reaching consequences, so when I say positive actions, I mean in all areas and all decisions of life. Being honest in all dealing you have. Appreciating positive actions done around or for you. You can do that, and so can I. Everyday I want to strive more and more to give the world a happy positive feedback loop from me. Make sure I help people to have a good day. To see the light at the end of the tunnel in their situation. 

In the end, I can not control anyone's actions except my own. So for my part, I will add as many positive and happy actions I can in the world.

I hope you have a wonderful day and life!

The Beginning

The ad used to convince 100s of children to buy these little creatures

This is the beginning of my blogging. The question I ask myself and I imagine anyone else would ask is why start a blog? What is there to be gained by starting a blog? What could I be doing instead of blogging with that time?

The answer is sharing. I want to share my thoughts with the world. I also want to find viewpoints that agree and disagree with my sentiments. Those who agree reaffirm my beliefs and those who disagree help expand my view on the world.

What I could be doing with my time instead, why anything in the world of course. At any given moment we are able to let ourselves be free and do anything. However, there are monetary limitations and time constraints that prevent us from doing anything in the end. The only thing holding you back in this world is you. It may seem otherwise at times, but, if you dig deep and believe, you can achieve anything.

What's in a name? I call my blog One Sea Monkey. Why?

1. First, I'm a 90s kid and as many of us from the 90s know you just can't resist sending off for that magical packet. As biology and genetic discoveries were being made sea monkey became available commercial. Cryogenic dried brine shrimp that you could have as a pet. They were considered less work that a fish since you could keep them in about a pint of water. 
2. Reflection on their plot in life. Sea Monkeys have no control over where they live, when they are birthed, nor how they will die. They have a complete life cycle and ecosystem all while living in only a fraction of the space that exists in the known world. 
3. It is a whimsical name. Sea Monkey itself is already a giggle worthy title. Sea horses, sea shells, and most any other name I can think of with the word sea in it represents freedom and fun. You gather sea shells for their beauty and the memories they invoke. You look at sea horses in the aquarium because of their adorable tails that propel them through the water. You go the beach and stare out over the sea because it is so large and overwhelming everything seems small next to it.
4. Sea Monkey are odd by their very nature to humans. They breathe with their feet, they have tons of feet and large eyeballs. They are translucent so you can see their organs and they move through the water like the viking ship of old. Stroke, Stroke, Stroke, the rise and fall of their oar-like feet giving them the propulsion they need to jet around.

So those are just a few reasons for One Sea Monkey. Perhaps throughout this thought experimenting blog I will find more reasons for naming my thought journey piece after these small, inquisitive creatures.

Just some of the topics I plan on exploring include:

1. Morality with and without religion
2. The positives and negatives of knowledge
3. The inefficiencies of technology implementation
4. The logical fallacies in political figures speeches
5. Life in general, from a philosophical point of view

I will preface all of this with the following.

I intend no offense with anything written or thought in this blog. I can not help if offense is taken, but understand none is given. I do not believe anyone ought to be judged for anything beyond their merit as a human being. 

That being said, I do believe people should be kind, thoughtful, hard-working, and always pursuing to make themselves a little better than they were the day before.

Therefore I shall do the same and use this blog as a tool to express my thoughts on how to improve the world and hopefully hear yours as well.

Welcome to One Sea Monkey!