Divine Selection or The Survival of the Useful/Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI
The Absoluteness
of
Right and Wrong
EVOLUTION, which offers natural selection as the explanation of the origin of living forms, consistently with itself accounts for moral things in a similar way. For says Mr. Spencer: "Advancing a step further (than the evolution of structure) we have to frame a conception of the evolution of conduct as correlated with this evolution of structure and function."[1]
We are told that right and wrong have their origin in human relations, and are developed as new conditions of society make additional demands. If there were only one person on the earth, whatever he desired to do would be right. But as soon as another comes into the field, his equal rights must be respected. As the number increases, land is occupied, food is scarce, and social relations are developed, right and wrong have an increased meaning. Right and wrong, good and evil, are therefore considered as merely relative terms, having no absolute existence.
Mr. Spencer illustrates the origin of "good" and "bad" by these words as applied to "a good house," "a bad umbrella," or "a bad pair of boots," affirming that there is no intrinsic character in good or bad.[2] He concludes that justice is developed from revenge through balancing aggression and counter aggression or compensating life for life in early times.
The same author reasons that as in despotic countries lying is prevalent, and in free countries truthfulness is more general, lying and truthfulness are due to "the coercive social structure which chronic external enmity develops, and to the non-coercive social structure developed by a life of internal amity."[3]
Even chastity has no intrinsic virtue, is given a materialistic origin, and shares the same fate as other virtues. "Among men as among inferior creatures the needs of the species determine the rightness or wrongness of those or these sexual relations."[4]
If virtues have their origin in conditions of society, and are primarily based upon the customs of social compacts, it is true that adultery, polygamy, polyandry, and all forms of lasciviousness can be ethically supported equally with the virtues, as Mr. Spencer claims. These lamentable conclusions of materialistic reasonings are the inevitable results of the non-acknowledgment of God, in whom truth and good exist, not merely relatively, but intrinsically .
The evil in evolutionary reasons would never have appeared so clearly if evolutionists had stopped before they attempted to apply their principles to moral questions, and offer them in explanation of the spiritual development of man. Evolution is apparently innocent in its beginning. Eventually it throws off the sheep's clothing, and appears in its execrable profanity. It seems that the only charitable way of excusing the acceptance of Evolution by the religious, is to attribute their credulence to a superficial knowledge of its principles and to a total ignorance of its vicious conclusions.
Truth and goodness are the essential nature of God, from whom they originate, together with every idea concerning them. Indeed, if the virtues had not an absolute existence in the Divine Being, they never could have been so much as thought of. The intuition by which we know that we could have no sense of cold if there were not heat, no sense of light if there were not darkness, no sense of joy if there were not sadness, no sense of harmony if there were not discord, equally assures us that we could have no knowledge of even relative virtue if there were not absolute virtue.
Right and wrong, therefore, do not have their origin in the social relation, though they appear there by contrast, but in God and in the relation of man to Him.
In ascertaining what right and wrong are, it is necessary to carefully distinguish the meaning of some words, for these terms in their essence are not so loose as is their use. From the shifting, varying use of these words one may become confused, and think that goodness and truth are no more fixed than are the words that give them names.
That a thing or action is right or wrong, necessitates a standard of comparison, The Creator Himself is that standard. Not only are His qualities good and true, but He is primarily Goodness and Truth itself. The thought is very inadequate that God is good only as an "umbrella" or a "pair of boots" is so regarded. Goodness and Truth are the names of His substance, just as land and water are the names of the two great elements of the earth's substance; just as flesh and blood are the names of the two general substances of the body; just as soul and body are the names of the two essentials of a person. His "flesh is meat indeed," and His "blood is drink indeed," because all goodness and truth that nourish the soul are from Him alone in whom they are absolute. Essential goodness is His flesh. Essential truth is His blood. It is this spiritual character of God that the Lord endeavored to convey when He said, " Except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood, ye have no life in you."
Goodness and truth being infinite in Him, these names of His attributes are the only names that have a meaning suitable to the substance itself of the Creator. "His flesh is meat indeed," and "His blood is drink indeed," because all goodness and truth that nourish the mind and soul are from Him alone in whom they are absolute.
It ought to be seen intuitively that the qualities of good and truth could not exist if there were not absolute good and truth from which such qualities are derived. For we know that no natural quality can exist without matter, of which it is a quality. It is equally evident that no spiritual quality can exist without a substance in which it inheres.
Having the starting point that the Creator is goodness and truth itself, less degrees of good and truth are not perplexing. God being essential goodness, truth is the way His goodness acts. Good as a quality is that which is after the pattern of the goodness of God. Right is that which is in harmony with creative truth. Right is the way that mankind is created to live. It is the divine order in creation. It is the way God would do and that He would have us do that we may fulfil the purpose of our creation. Wrong is the way mankind is not created to live. It is the disorder that is, by the very nature of things, contrary to divine order. Wrong is disorder, and the way in which, if we live, the ends of creation will be defeated in us.
Good and evil with man originate in a similar way. Good is the effect of right living. Evil is the effect of wrong living. Good is the state of life that God has created us for. Evil is what He did not create us for. Goodness and truth are the nature of God and what is in harmony with Him. Evil and wrong are what is not of the nature of God and not in harmony with Him. Goodness and truth are absolute in the nature and substance of God, from whom originates the idea of goodness and truth, together with all their qualities that appertain to mankind. Wrong and evil have their existence in the free will of man, whereby he can, if he choose, deny God and live in natural and spiritual disorder.
It is from such perceptions of inevitable fact that it can be asserted without reservation or qualification that nothing ethical or moral has a materialistic or natural origin. Truly it may so appear, as a stick seems bent when immersed in water; but the primary cause is the absoluteness of good and truth in God.
Now if we ask what can we know of the Goodness and Truth of God, which are infinite and consequently incomprehensible to the finite, the reply is that goodness and truth are known by revelation from God in whom they are. As goodness and truth exist only in and from God, they can be known only by revelation from Him. So must have originated the truth and good in every religion, howsoever much it may subsequently have become adulterated.
The religion of progressive civilization of to-day is founded upon the revelation of the goodness and truth of God in Jesus Christ, which is a presentation of the divine nature so vast, so sublime, so complete, that no man can fully fathom it. The infinite character of absolute Goodness and Truth, the infinite nature of God, in no wise precludes the possibility of finite and accommodated revelation of divine nature and life, and of God: nor is it thereby made impossible for the infinite goodness and truth of God to be so embodied in revelation that mankind may get finite, yet true presentations of the goodness and truth of God. If infinite Love could not reveal itself, it would not be infinite. To the question, How can the finite know the infinite, or God, the reply is, the life and character of Jesus Christ is a revelation of God, a revelation of His goodness and truth, accommodated to every possible state of willing receptivity.
Knowledge of the absoluteness of good and truth in God makes clear the origin and nature of wrong and evil. Wrong and evil have their origin in the misuse of the free will of man, whereby he can, if he choose, deny God and live in disorder. Wrong is the violation of divine order in which God created mankind to live. Evil is the effect of disorder. There can be no virtue conceivable without its opposite, for the possibility of the opposite with man makes virtue attainable. Or it may be said that wrong is the opposite of truth or right, and evil is the opposite of good. As right is the way good does, wrong is the way evil acts.
The question may here arise, If goodness and truth are absolute in God, they being His substance and form, have evil and falsity an absolute existence? Certainly they could not exist as qualities unless there is something substantial of which they are qualities. Yet their origin is far different from that of goodness and truth. While goodness and truth are absolute, eternal, and infinite, because God is, evil and falsity are finite, and have their beginning in time. For they are not absolute in themselves, but derive their existence from the perversion of goodness and truth from God. They now have their permanent existence in the substance and form of perverted human nature. The essence of evil and wrong is therefore the substance and form of evil things and of the mind of evil persons.
The many grades of right and wrong and of good and evil appearing in the complexity of social relations may give the appearance that good and bad, true and false are merely relative terms, originating in human fancy, while a more searching mind will see that goodness and truth are fixed in the eternal substance and form of God's Divine Humanity.