The New Gospel

<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><em>Socrates:</em></strong><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">&nbsp; Then we ought not to do wrong at all.</em></p><p><strong><em>Crito:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Why, no.</em></p><p><strong><em>Socrates:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; And we ought not even to requite wrong with wrong, as the world thinks, since we must not do wrong at all.</em></p><p><strong><em>Crito:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Apparently not.</em></p><p><strong><em>Socrates:</em></strong><em> &nbsp; Well, Crito, ought one to do evil or not?</em></p><p><strong><em>Crito:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Certainly not, Socrates.</em></p><p><strong><em>Socrates:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Well, then, is it right to requite evil with evil, as the world says it is, or not right?</em></p><p><strong><em>Crito:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Not right, certainly.</em></p><p><strong><em>Socrates:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; For doing evil to people is the same as wronging them.</em></p><p><strong><em>Crito:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; That is true.</em></p><p><strong><em>Socrates:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Then we ought neither to requite wrong with wrong nor to do evil to anyone, no matter what he may have done to us.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Everything has two handles, by one of which it ought to be carried and by the other not.&nbsp; If your brother wrongs you, do not lay hold of the matter by the handle of the wrong that he is doing, because this is the handle by which the matter ought not to be carried; but rather by the other handle—that he is your brother, that you were brought up together, and then you will be laying hold of the matter by the handle by which it ought to be carried.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Again, consider him who in all the virtues transcended human nature … the whole human race exhausted by mutual slaughter was on the verge of utter destruction, had it not been for one man and leader Augustus whom men fitly call the averter of evil.&nbsp; This is the Caesar who calmed the torrential storms on every side, who healed the pestilences common to Greeks and barbarians … This is he who not only loosed but broke the chains which had shackled and pressed so hard on the habitable world … This is he who reclaimed every state to liberty, who led disorder into order and brought gentle manners and harmony to all unsociable and brutish nations … and Hellenized the outside world in its most important regions, the guardian of peace, who dispensed their dues to each and all, who did not hoard his favors but gave them to be common property, who kept nothing good and excellent hidden throughout his life. &nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Do all things as a disciple of [the emperor] Antoninus.&nbsp; Think of his constancy in every act rationally undertaken, his invariable equability, his piety, his serenity of countenance, his sweetness of disposition, his contempt for the bubble of fame, and his zeal for getting a true grasp of affairs … how he put up with those who found fault with him unfairly, finding no fault with them in return; how he was never in a hurry; how he gave no ear to slander … what little sufficed him whether for lodging or bed, dress, food, or attendance; how fond he was of work … how he would remain the whole day at the same occupation … how loyal he was to his friends and always the same … and his pleasure when anyone pointed out something better; and how god-fearing he was and yet not given to superstition.&nbsp; Take heed to all this, that thy last hour come upon thee as much at peace with thy conscience as he was.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions … It is a sin to try to alter this law … We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it.&nbsp; And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens ...</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Since, as Plato has admirably expressed it, we are not born for ourselves alone, but our country claims a share of our being, and our friends a share; and since, as the Stoics hold, everything that the earth produces is created for man’s use; and as men, too, are born for the sake of other men, that they may be able mutually to help one another; in this direction we ought to follow Nature as our guide, to contribute to the general good by an interchange of acts of kindness, by giving and receiving, and thus by our skill, our industry, and our talents to cement human society more closely together, man to man.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">So long as we draw breath, so long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity.&nbsp; Let us not cause fear to any man, nor danger; let us scorn losses, wrongs, abuse, and taunts, and let us endure with heroic mind our short-lived ills.&nbsp; While we are looking back, as they say, and turning around, straightway death will be upon us.&nbsp; (</em><strong style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><em>Seneca </em></strong><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">4BC-65AD, On Anger (3:43:5), p. 355)</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Friendship produces between us a partnership in all our interests.&nbsp; There is no such thing as good or bad fortune for the individual; we live in common.&nbsp; And no one can live happily who has regard for himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbor, if you would live for yourself.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">… let it be postulated first that I am a part of the whole Universe controlled by Nature; secondly, that I stand in some intimate connection with other kindred parts … and in so far as I am in intimate connection with the parts that are akin to myself, I shall be guilty of no unsocial act, but I shall devote my attention rather to the parts that are akin to myself, and direct every impulse of mine to the common interest and withhold from it the reverse of this.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">… but these are minor variations and do not affect the basic moral agreement seen in the teachings of Roman Christianity [chiefly as evidenced by Paul’s Epistle to the Romans] and Roman Stoicism [as evidenced by the works of Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and Epictetus]—except for one difference … the ethical scope of the Christian and Stoic texts, that is, the question of whether the texts teach unqualified universal humanity or not.&nbsp; It was concluded that, contrary to common opinion, there can be no doubt that the Stoic texts teach such universal humanity, while Christian texts do not.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Everyone will admit that man is a social being.&nbsp; We see this in his dislike of solitude, and in his wish for society beyond that of his family.&nbsp; Solitary confinement is one of the severest punishments which can be inflicted.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">In ancestral times, we had the opportunity to be altruistic only towards close kin and potential reciprocators.&nbsp; Nowadays that restriction is no longer there, but the rule of thumb persists.&nbsp; Why would it not?&nbsp; It is just like sexual desire.&nbsp; We can no more help ourselves feeling pity when we see a weeping unfortunate (who is unrelated and unable to reciprocate) than we can help ourselves feeling lust for a member of the opposite sex (who may be infertile or otherwise unable to reproduce).&nbsp; Both are misfirings, Darwinian mistakes: blessed, precious mistakes.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">The mechanism underlying human moral conduct is the desire for attachment and affiliation.&nbsp; The desire is evident in the instinctively prosocial behavior of the newborn infant and in the instinctively caring response that parents make to that behavior.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background or his religion.&nbsp; People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.&nbsp;</em></p>