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Must religion and morals go together? Can one be taught without the other? These questions are as relevant today as they were nearly a century ago when author Annie Besant first addressed them in The Basis of Morality. Whether you are an ardent believer or a hard-nosed skeptic, the age-old relationship between religion and morality is a fascinating one to ponder.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 mai 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781775410980
Langue	English

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THE BASIS OF MORALITY
* * *
ANNIE BESANT

*

The Basis of Morality From a 1915 edition.
ISBN 978-1-775410-98-0
© 2009 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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I - Revelation II - Intuition III - Utility IV - Evolution V - Mysticism
I - Revelation
*
Must religion and morals go together? Can one be taught without theother? It is a practical question for educationists, and France triedto answer it in the dreariest little cut and dry kind of catechism evergiven to boys to make them long to be wicked. But apart from education,the question of the bedrock on which morals rest, the foundation onwhich a moral edifice can be built that will stand secure against thestorms of life—that is a question of perennial interest, and it mustbe answered by each of us, if we would have a test of Right and Wrong,would know why Right is Right, why Wrong is Wrong.
Religions based on Revelation find in Revelation their basis formorality, and for them that is Right which the Giver of the Revelationcommands, and that is Wrong which He forbids. Right is Right becauseGod, or a Rshi or a Prophet, commands it, and Right rests on theWill of a Lawgiver, authoritatively revealed in a Scripture.
Now all Revelation has two great disadvantages as a basis for morality.It is fixed, and therefore unprogressive; while man evolves, and at alater stage of his growth, the morality taught in the Revelation becomesarchaic and unsuitable. A written book cannot change, and many things inthe Bibles of Religion come to be out of date, inappropriate to newcircumstances, and even shocking to an age in which conscience hasbecome more enlightened than it was of old.
The fact that in the same Revelation as that in which palpably immoralcommands appear, there occur also jewels of fairest radiance, gems ofpoetry, pearls of truth, helps us not at all. If moral teachings worthyonly of savages occur in Scriptures containing also rare and preciousprecepts of purest sweetness, the juxtaposition of light and darknessonly produces moral chaos. We cannot here appeal to reason or judgmentfor both must be silent before authority; both rest on the same ground."Thus saith the Lord" precludes all argument.
Let us take two widely accepted Scriptures, both regarded asauthoritative by the respective religions which accept them as comingfrom a Divine Preceptor or through a human but illuminated being, Mosesin the one case, Manu in the other. I am, of course, well aware thatin both cases we have to do with books which may contain traditions oftheir great authors, even sentences transmitted down the centuries.The unravelling of the tangled threads woven into such books is a workneeding the highest scholarship and an infinite patience; few of usare equipped for such labour. But let us ignore the work of the HigherCriticism, and take the books as they stand, and the objection raisedto them as a basis for morality will at once appear.
Thus we read in the same book: "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear anygrudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thyneighbour as thyself." "The stranger that dwelleth with you shall beunto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself, forye were strangers in the land of Egypt." "Sanctify yourselves thereforeand be ye holy." Scores of noble passages, inculcating high morality,might be quoted. But we have also: "If thy brother, the son of thymother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thyfriend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly saying, let usgo and serve other Gods ... thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearkenunto him; neither shalt thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare,neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him; thinehand shall be first upon him to put him to death." "Thou shalt notsuffer a witch to live." A man is told, that he may seize a fair womanin war, and "be her husband and she shall be thy wife. And it shall bethat if thou hast no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whithershe will." These teachings and many others like them have drenchedEurope with blood and scorched it with fire. Men have grown out ofthem; they no longer heed nor obey them, for man's reason performs itseclectic work on Revelation, chooses the good, rejects the evil. Thisis very good, but it destroys Revelation as a basis. Christians haveoutgrown the lower part of their Revelation, and do not realise thatin striving to explain it away they put the axe to the root of itsauthority.
So also is it with the Institutes of Manu, to take but one examplefrom the great sacred literature of India.

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