Sunday Sermon - August 10, 2014: Life Mistakes

"Life is like a game of cards.  

The hand you are dealt is determinism; 

the way you play it is free will."

-- Jawaharial Nehru, former Prime Minister of India

Determinism is defined as "the doctrine that all events, including human action are ultimately determined by causes external to the will."  I believe Prime Minister Nehru is correct when he adds to this definition, "the way you play it is free will."  

Attached to this definition of determinism was another statement:  "Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions."  Bullshit.  This is nothing but a phony "get out of jail free card" used by people without the moral fortitude to accept responsibility and ownership for any of their actions.  Taken to the extreme one could say that a woman has no control over saying no to, or fighting off, a rapist.  She has no free will, so she needs to accept the fact of rape as part of life.  The court can no more hold her accountable for just lying there and taking it any more than they can hold the rapist morally responsible for the rape.  Their actions are "determined by causes external to the will."   Is this interpretation correct?  Of course not; it is bullshit.  

Our need to act is, in fact, ultimately determined by causes external to the will.  I believe, however, that although the causality for our need to act is external to our will, the actions we decide to take due to the cause is our choice.  The choices we make may also be influenced, more than likely, by the environment in which we were raised.  Most of us were raised in a country with laws based on good moral conduct.  Whether or parents or guardians taught us to respect those moral laws as a guide to our conduct is really immaterial.  We grew up aware of them and, therefore, had some inkling that it was incumbent upon us to obey those laws or our country would decline into anarchy.  So, in this sense, one could make the old argument that "ignorance is no excuse."  If we know what is morally right, if we know the law, if we know the difference between good conduct and bad, we are still morally responsible for the actions that we take. 

So what is the difference between "legally" responsible and "morally" responsible?  I don't think it matters that it is the legally responsible thing to do.  Sometimes the legally responsible action flies in the face of one's moral obligations.  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, says this about moral responsibility:

People who have moral responsibility for an action are called moral agents. Agents are capable of reflecting on their situation, forming intentions about how they will act, and then carrying out that action. The notion of free will is an important issue in the debate on whether individuals are ever morally responsible for their actions and, if so, in what sense.  Incompatibilists think that determinism is at odds with free will, whereas compatibilists think the two can coexist. 

Moral responsibility is not necessarily the same as legal responsibility. A person is legally responsible for an event when it is that person who is liable to be penalised in the court system for an event. Although it may often be the case that when a person is morally responsible for an act, they are also legally responsible for it, the two states do not always coincide.

We see this all the time in our judicial system.  When it happens it is morally incumbent upon us to ensure the law is changed to reflect society's concern for moral responsibility.  We also discovered this during the Vietnam conflict when immoral orders were issued by commanding officers and followed, to the letter, by the soldiers.  What came out of this conflict would change the face of military conduct.  The oath for all military inductees reads:

"I, ____________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God"

Lawrence Mosqueda, Ph.D., of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, has this to say about the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and how this oath is to be interpreted:

"The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) 809[890].ART.90 (20), makes it clear that military personnel need to obey the "lawful command of his superior officer," 891.ART.91 (2), the "lawful order of a warrant officer", 892.ART.92 (1) the "lawful general order", 892.ART.92 (2) "lawful order". In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ."

So, we can see that somewhere down the line there is a leap from what is legal to what is moral, changes are made in order to bring them into line with one another, and a new legal interpretation emerges that takes into account society's moral expectations.

I started this sermon by discussing the similarity of life to a game of cards.  I play the game "Freecell" constantly.  As of this moment I am on a 153 game winning streak.  It is hard not to win, unless you give up.  The game allows you to go back if you make a mistake, or see a mistake coming, and try another tactic.  Life is like this.  If you make a mistake, all is not lost.  Back up, see where you went wrong, ask for help if necessary, and move forward to try again.  It is called learning, and it is something we don't require in schools any more.

Life is all about winning.  Winning is how you define it.  That you consider yourself a winner is all that really matters.  I have taken many things that didn't turn out quite the way I would have liked them to and taken into consideration how much worse they might have been before I finally make the comment, "I'll consider that a win."  How we live our lives is so very much more important than living life.  We will make mistakes, we are human.  As a human, you have a responsibility to either try and correct the mistake or, if that isn't possible, to learn from the mistake and move on with the intent to not repeat it.  It is your responsibility to you, to do these things.  It is your path, your life, your decisions, and your mistake when it all goes to hell in a handbasket.  We must step up and learn to accept ownership for our own lives. 

"For when the One Great Scorer comes,
To write against your name,
He marks - not that you won or lost -
But how you played the game."

-- Grantland Rice (1880-1954), American sportswriter

In the end, when Christ, the One Great Scorer, comes to write against your name, will you reflect upon how you lived your life?  You won't be judged on other people's opinions of you.  You will be judged by the guilt and fear, the selfishness you carry like a yolk around your neck, or the chains you drag that were forged by you in life as with the ghost of Jacob Marley in Dickens', "A Christmas Carol."  You will be your own worst enemy, or your own best friend.

God bless us all this wonderful Sunday!  Try to get outside and enjoy some of the miracles and beauty of nature that have been put here for our enjoyment.

Note:  As always, this is just my opinion.  Opinions are meant to stir the pot and illicit a response.  That response might be that you come up with an opinion of your own.  I hope this is the case.