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Nature's Way:
A Personal Belief System
Introduction
A couple of years ago I began the process of organizing my own set of
beliefs. I will continue revising
these beliefs for the remainder of my life.
If I could live up to these beliefs I would consider my life a success.
There may be weak spots, misconceptions and misinformation behind these
beliefs. I intend to keep working
them over continually as new information prompts.
It is an unending process.
One of the goals of “Belief, That Tricky Business” is that the reader
develops his own ideas and sets them down on paper in a clear and consistent
manner. It is not productive for a
person to live his/her life with just a hazy concept of what he/she believes.
It is better to be forthright and to act in a consistent manner with a
set of defined beliefs. In this
information age that we live in it is not possible to set in stone a set of
beliefs but it is reasonable to set them down in your computer and revise them
as the days go by.
For me, at least, it seems to be an obvious and reasonable belief that
all living things are members of an ongoing, developing Life Process that
operates under the laws of nature and the physical universe.
The laws of nature include the survival of the most adaptable,
propagation and perpetuation of the species and natural selection.
Beneath the veneer of civilization, these are the drives that generate
basic behaviors such as the powerful bond of motherhood, family cohesiveness,
nationalism, ethnocentrism and the multitude of organizations that promote the
well being of its members. Membership
in this Life Process is easily discovered by the similarity of DNA
characteristics among all plants and animals.
Also the similarity among groups of animals in the way they propagate,
nurture their young and their behavioral characteristics is strong evidence for
their common membership in the life process.
Mankind, this past 30 plus million years has developed intelligence and
consciousness to a high degree. This
development has given rise to the arts, religion, governmental organization and
a multitude of advanced behaviors. Most
human societies have developed belief systems that have attempted to explain the
origin of the Life Process and to guarantee the continuance of, at least , the
intelligence/consciousness part of our existence.
The results of this seemingly natural tendency have been mixed, including
the most beautiful and productive to the brutal and vicious.
That there is some truth in the various religious endeavors and
paranormal experiences down through the centuries, seems reasonable.
We lack evidence of just exactly what that truth is.
While the major religions have developed sublime and attractive systems,
they conflict in matters of detail and emphasis.
Perhaps someday mankind will develop to such an extent as to be able to
grasp the truth of the Life Process. For
the present, for me at least, it seems reasonable to be an observer and
participant in the Life Process and to support the productive efforts of every
religion without committing my beliefs.
The origin of the Life Process is a difficult concept to deal with.
While is seems reasonable that there is a God or entity initiating the
process, objective evidence to
support the contention is lacking. If
there were solid evidence of the truth of the Life Process, there would be a lot
less trouble in the world. Scientists
are gaining knowledge of the actual mechanics of the beginnings of life but the
initiating force is still a mystery.
My Nature’s Way belief system has the following components: The
exhortations are my stripped down review of the important aspects of this
system. They are called exhortations
because they form the basis for decisions that make up daily life.
It would have been nice to have received them up on the mountain carved
in stone, but alas this was not to be so. They
were developed over a period of time during the hustle bustle of daily living.
From Nature’s Way
1. Let kindness and peacefulness be your guide.
4. Actively support governmental and other institutions that bring order and
flexibility to your life and that operate for the good of your family, city,
state, country and world.
5. Combine consistency, rationality and
6.
Develop personal independence and ability and participate in important
causes as either a leader or a worker.
7. Conduct your life's work, no matter how humble, in
8. Use restraint and caring in your actions.
9. Participate, if reason permits, in the spiritual realm;
10. Let
your life be full of fun and laughter.
I believe in the efficacy of peacefulness, kindness, tolerance and the
constant quest for beauty, truth and progress.
I believe we are all part of nature’s systems and are subject to its
priorities and characteristics.
I
believe in the possibility that there is a god, force or entity that
initiated the processes of living or has become involved in nature’s
system at some point in our development.
At present I can say nothing further about this possibility.
I believe that there is a built-in aspect in man’s makeup that causes
him to seek the solutions to the problems of life and immortality through a
higher, other worldly power. It is
this aspect that has given rise to the myriad of beliefs that have dotted
history’s landscape.
I believe that within nature’s systems there is a built in process
that propels us towards a better adaptation to life, the full extent of which we
are just beginning to realize.
I hope that the great religions are correct and that there is a world
beyond what we now know and that our individual entity will be included in that
world. In the absence of some
convincing evidence of this other world’s existence, this concept must remain
a hope. At this point in the
development of my own personal beliefs I have suspended the belief in the
concept of god as defined by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
While I accept that those religions are full of important concepts that
have helped in the development of the human being and successful societies, the
inconsistencies and conflicting aspects of those religions have prompted me to
search for the truth of a god or entity in other belief systems.
On the one hand these western religions define god as all powerful, all
knowing and beneficent, but what has happened throughout history is a hodgepodge
of cruelty, violence, starvation and pestilence.
The inconsistency of the beliefs with what actually has happened and
continues to happen has plagued western religions for centuries.
I call my philosophy of life “Nature’s Way”.
It is a philosophy that recognizes the evolutionary, biological nature of
man and all living things. Whatever
else we are, basically we are creatures of nature’s system and are subject to
its priorities and characteristics. The important concepts embodied in this
philosophy are that all ideas and beliefs, old and new, must be subject to an
ongoing examination for their consistency, reasonableness, historical
perspective and verifiable evidence before they can be fully incorporated into
the core beliefs of Nature’s Way. Ideas
and beliefs that don’t satisfy these criteria are not necessarily discarded
but rather become part of the ongoing body of beliefs and ideas that may
contribute in some way to the core beliefs in Nature’s Way.
Some ideas and beliefs are not, by their nature, capable of being
examined for their verifiability. Morality,
beauty and other highly subjective studies are among those that don’t lend
themselves easily to scientific examination.
The result of subjecting ideas and beliefs to these criteria is that few
become full fledged items in Nature’s Way.
It is critically important to have a continuing examination of ideas and
beliefs and the consideration of the usefulness of those ideas and beliefs as
they apply to the process of living. The
great western religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, in my view do not meet
the criteria for consistency and reasonableness and are in conflict with the
core belief of Nature’s Way that man’s nature is evolutionary and biological
along with all living things. However,
those religions in many ways, have sparked some of the progress that man has
achieved throughout these past couple centuries.
I suspect that all people have a criterion for believing what they
believe. They may not have this
criterion written down or have even given it much consideration but the
variation of beliefs between religious groups and within religious groups
indicates a wide variety of beliefs. For my purposes I have delineated these
levels of beliefs so as to have a clear picture of the differing items and where
they fit in the overall scheme of acceptance in my Nature’s Way philosophy.
These levels are as follows:
Category One
- Scientifically verifiable or reasonable with historical
consistency. In our modern
world of ever increasing research, knowledge and communication it is pretty
difficult to unequivocally state that a certain idea or field of knowledge is
completely true.
Beliefs in this category need to be
consistent, credible and have some convincing evidence.
Certainly there will be a wide variance in what each person considers
worthy of this category. Category One forms the core for my Nature’s Way
philosophy:
Present core beliefs of Nature's Way
Laws of physics
Evolutionary nature of all living organisms
Category Two - This is the
category in which most ideas, phenomena and
knowledge belongs.
The major religions no doubt have aspects that belong in the first
category but, in total, there is too great a lack of consistency and credible
evidence to fit into that category. Research
in the sciences are replicated time and time again in an effort to nail down the
truth of a certain proposition. Some
of this research will finally fit into Category One.
Most subjective research and anecdotal commentary on observed phenomena
will probably remain in the second category.
One advantage of having this category is that a person doesn’t have to
make the decision of rejecting certain knowledge but can place that knowledge in
this category for further inspection;
Religious doctrine, miracles, pronouncements. Social theories, programs, trends, astrology
Psychology and parapsychology
All unexplained phenomena
Medical research still in the process
Category Three -
Improbable - If an idea lacks credible evidence, is inconsistent with the
world as we know it, and does not fit into the historical aspects of human
experience, it is probably safe to reject this idea as being improbable
The hope with these categories is that we don’t get gulled into
Is there solace, hope and comfort in this Nature’s Way Philosophy?
Within
evolution’s processes and rules there are examples of heart warming beauty and
seeming morality. Watching the
mothers within the animal kingdom care for their young or an animal that risks
its life to save another is something to behold.
A recent article in the paper describing a dangerous building fire
identified a mother cat as the hero of the event.
The cat entered the fire engulfed building three times to bring out her
litter. Her face was all burned and
she was in bad shape but she got her litter out.
It is enough to make you wonder. But
I don’t think we can look to the
evolutionary process for any kind of lead in terms of morality or philosophical
truth. The evolutionary process is
focused on the preservation and adaptation of life and is often violent and
disgusting in the process. While we
must deal with evolution as the central core of our existence, we must look
elsewhere for morality, values and truths that are beyond the scope of our
physical existence. Perhaps the
evolutionary drive for the ubiquitous adaptation to life is a reason for
considering the possibility that herein lies the purposes and truths of our
existence. Perhaps the answer to our quest for meaning in life is to accentuate
the positive and the beautiful in nature and accept as a necessity the brutal
and ugly parts of nature. Putting a
value judgment on the negative aspects of nature may just be a hang up stemming
from a superficial concept of what life is all about.
Meaning and truth are tough nuts to crack but somewhere down the road it
may all become obvious.
Are there any promises of immortality?
Certainly Nature’s Way leaves in limbo some of the most important
questions a person may ask about life. The
question of immortality is not promised as in Christianity and Islam if
you conduct your life in a certain manner and believe certain critical concepts.
However, my Nature’s Way Philosophy does not discount the possibility
of immortality, only the manner in which it is promised in these great
religions. Three thousand years of
history have failed to provide convincing evidence of life after death.
I’m sure there are millions and millions of people out there that will
not agree with that statement and that is OK with me.
I can have the same hopes as everyone else but before that concept
becomes part of my core belief, I will need some convincing evidence.
