Why This Was Written

     Present moralities are learned belief systems.  The better known
ones are called Religions. This is to describe these belief systems in
the form of a science.  It is meant to be both a descriptive science
and an empirical science.

     The situation is very like it was before the Renaissance.
Sciences were belief systems of the Church, that had in turn been
taken from earlier Greek Science.  Often it was very devout men, in an
effort to know god better, that studied the natural world.  Religion
was and has to be quite conservative, so it could not adequately
change its belief systems to respond to the new knowledge that was
found.  So Sciences had to be created and used independently from
these belief systems, for the newly discovered knowledge.

     The teaching of morality must be by the family, but this is
supported, formed and perpetuated through religion.  If there is a
disruption in the family, religion is the backup to insure moral
education.  It is in religion that moral knowledge is husbanded.

     Morality is one of the last belief systems husbanded by religions
and it is the natural field of beliefs to be nurtured and husbanded by
religions.  It must now be examined as a science though.  This is for
a number of reasons:

  1.   Many times, religion fails to teach a useful morality to its
adherents.  This may because it confuses its mission or its message
becomes obscured by other practices of the religion.

  2.   Some of the moral methods of a religion may be becoming
obsolete in the face of the changing world.

  3. Many peoples parents fail to teach them a useful morality.  This
may be because:
   a. Their parents had failed in turn failed to teach them and the
      family's moral knowledge is lost.
   b. Circumstance like a death of a parent, divorce or as a result of
      an economic dislocation like the great depression.
   c. War.
   d. The child is different enough from the parent that they cannot
      use the morality that worked for the parent.  This is especially
      likely to happen in a highly hybridized family.

  4.  Many people are now trained in critical, rational thinking and
they need their knowledge presented to them in a scientific form.
They have worked hard to develop their world view in rational terms,
to direct both their occupational and personal lives.  It is hard for
them to accept beliefs that are based on authority and precedence.
They need beliefs based on logic and reason.

    Understand that the moral systems husbanded by religions were
created by very wise individuals and they have been tested by time.
In that it is proven that they work pretty well, a part of this
science of morality must be a complete examination of how these belief
systems, taught by authority and precedence, originated based on good
reason and understanding.  They were also based on long observation of
what worked.  This is another reason then to make a science of
morality.  If it is learned why these systems work, their weaknesses
may be clearly seen.  That is important now in this time of change
when situations frequently arise that are not easily described in
terms of the existing moral systems.

     An interesting thought is that the limitations of the predicative
nature of this science are great enough at present, that the
moralities taught by religions are, in general, superior moralities to
what science can create or systematically describe.  We really are
quite limited in what we know about what it takes for humans to
survive.  It is just that religions are doing such a bad job of
husbanding moralities.   Moralities, like other belief systems before
them, are now changing rapidly enough that, most religions, by their
inherent conservative nature, cannot properly adapt with them. Morality
is the business of morality, so it should be the business of religions
to foster moral science.
     It is a fundamental premise of this analysis that humans got
where they are by strategies of cooperation.  This is one of the
primary yard sticks by which this science measures the nature of any
morality.  There are others, because all strategies, including
cooperation, must be measured in terms of survival.  It does say
interesting things about the moralities of religions, especially
Christianity, because its message so much fosters cooperation.

     Much of this book, "Transition", is based on biological science,
because it is the study of life.  This is a study of how people and
other species live and can live.  Also, many of the fundamental
changes that are effecting humanity at present, are coming from
our advancing knowledge of biology and genetics.  In this book, it is
considered that an aspect of human genetics is what will present many
of the greatest future changes effecting human survival.  The first
half of the book is about human biology (largely based on the work of
C.D.Darlington) and the second half is about human morality in the
context of that biological description.  The kicker (key) part of this
is in chapter 5.

To be continued....

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