Men see no morality involved with the actions of gravity, but are made to do so regarding the cultural ones they devise and pursue. No law or theory concerning the physical world is seen to be morally right or wrong, but all mental and social ones ordinary men measure life by are based on the premise of them having a moral imperative. Men abstain from certain healthy foods, share their wealth with strangers due to their minds’ acceptance of ideas that say doing so is a moral, incomprehensible obligation with ultimate, imperceptible benefits.
Imaginary-giraffe-in-a-matchbox:
To have any potential for seeing what life is about, you must quickly get past the meaningless distraction of there being any morality to anything non-physical, and prosecute, cold bloodedly, the mental matter of, true and false to its “Okay! I confess!” conclusion.
Whatever the mind in the usual course of its operation turns its attention to, it will focus on details in an attempt to arrive at an idea which seems to it to be a true explanation of the affair. You hear a claim that praying to the gods can cure illness, and your mind will announce that this is either true or false. (Let us say your thoughts declare it false), then you read about what appears to be a scientific study in which mere verbal supplications to an unseen power resulted in the visible disappearance of a malignant growth. Your mind is taken aback, can this be…no, it cannot be…and yet the finding came from a renowned medical researcher, and an atheist at that. So, could it be true that prayer can cure physical illness, or based on everything factually understood by science, is it unquestionably false – not conceivably possible?
No one can definitively answer the question and yet, there is an answer. But it is completely beyond the normal operations of the thinking, with which man is naturally born. While there is no shortage of other examples, you could employ: Is man inherently good or evil; Is there a purpose to life; Does man have freedom-of-will? This one fits our purpose admirably, so stop reading this for a moment, get in your best, most stable and intelligent mental state, and calmly ponder the question as objectively as possible, (Just for a few seconds): “Can prayer cure a person’s physical sickness?” You find that, far beyond your immediate, willful control, the thoughts that, by birth, constitute your mind either automatically accept or reject the truth of the idea. Neither will satisfy, for if your thoughts deny it, how do they explain the scientific finding to the contrary? (And so on, down an infinite sloppy road.)
J.