CopyRight @ 1996
This book started out as an examination of changing human
ecologies. Human ecology has been undergoing rapid changes since
the advent of big game hunting. The examination was always stated
in the context of what it would take for humans to create another
relatively stable ecology. If we cannot find a long term niche,
we will not survive. This book is written to produce a way of
examining and evaulating factors of human existence as elements
that can be evaluated by the methods of science. In general, the
science used was ecology. I prefer to refer to it as a
sub-discipline of biology. The real goal of this book though, is
to create an examination of survival strategies, particularly
strategies humans can use to survive. A method and will to
survive is a morality. So this is to examine a science of
moralities, especially as it applies to humans. This implies that
there are characteristics of human survival strategies that are
qualitatively different than the strategies of other organisms
examined by biology. Humans have diverged and will continue to
diverge from the characteristic patterns of the rest of the
animal kingdom, just as plants and animals diverge. As suggested,
these changes largely relate to intelligence and tool use. Call
this study what you like, perhaps moralology. This is another
function of religion that may be changed to a science. Rarely can
religion look forward, a science can. The difficulty is the
complexity of the study that includes energetics, genetics,
behaviors, beliefs, technology, disease and a good dollop of
other factors, all observed in an unavoidably subjective context.
Enough said, here is a view of what a stable ecology might look
like, that is understood to be so rudimentry as to only qualify
as a model. This is a model that took a lot of thought.
Moralities are the learned behaviors that we have used to
replace our instincts. A learned survival strategy is a morality.
To a large extent, human ecologies are defined by our use of
learned survival strategies rather than instincts. Human survival
instincts include the tendency and desire to use learned survival
strategies. We have called these survival strategies moralities
and they have generally been preserved and taught by religions.
Though religions vary in their moral systems, the utilization of
religion has almost been universal to human groups. What would
one call an inheritable behavior to use a learned survival
strategy or moral system? This behavior is what is called faith.
It is usually associated with religion, because religion is what
has perpetuated the moral systems. Yet many people have faith
without religion and many that have religion have no faith. As a
survival instinct, faith is hope and the belief in the value of
self, family, community and the continuity that is represented by
survival. Why do we struggle to grow, survive and raise children.
It is faith. Many people have difficulty dealing with religion,
but they do not ignore it. Even though religion is unusable to
them and seems corrupted, their faith is what makes it an issue
that is not to be ignored.
Morality is like food in many ways. How it is done may
change, but the result never does. How one gets food may change,
but the need and use never does. There are many moral systems,
but their result is the same. There are many ways to do it, but
the result of a moral system is a method to survive and raise
children that can survive. So what is variable about moral
systems and what is not? A moral system is the method and will to
survive. How to survive changes, characteristics of survival do
not. A moral system must allow for the raising of children such
that they will be able to raise their own children in turn.
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