A do-it-yourself project?
April 15, 2008 (Tuesday)
One of the sci-fi series on TV features a character who looks like everyone else, but in fact is not at all a human being. He is a holograph, a 3-dimentional projection, much like a movie. The setting for the series is centuries in the future, so imagination runs wild. In one of the episodes, his behavior changes, and his personality changes. “You don’t sound like yourself,” he is told, “you never would have said or done such evil and immoral things! What has happened to you?” His reply, “My programmers have dismantled my ethical sub-routines.” As a hologram, he is a computer program. His morality has been shut down.
Sound familiar? That ever happened to you?
In the midst of a discussion on “conscience,” a lady lightheartedly chimed in, “Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.” Have you ever asked yourself, “What is conscience?” It is plainly and simply the way you react to what you do. If you act in a manner that conflicts with the way you think you should behave, your conscience hurts, meaning you have an uncomfortable emotional reaction to what you have done. It’s called “guilt.”
Modern religions – and there are many of them – have done away with the concept of “sin.” The whole question of morality is based on one’s own personal view, and not on the Bible or one’s faith in God. Much of the new way of thinking is known as “New Age.” It is a manifestation of a movement known as “Post-modernism.” Some churches have begun a process of compromise with these new ideas. Our “marketing techniques” in churches have finally reached the “jumping-off place.” It’s well and good to research the religious market and build programs to reach people with new methods, but it is a major disaster if we change our ethics to accommodate the idea that a person is obligated to do “whatever is right in his own eyes.” We as a human race tried that once, and it rained 40 days and 40 nights.