The Golden Rule not striking gold.?
Alright, before anybody starts bashing me for some of the thoughts I’ll share here, let’s get one thing straight. I do believe that everybody is entitled to his own opinion, and nobody has any right in any way to that take away from him. Two, I believe that God gifted every one of us a mental faculty that we have to employ, well, more or less, every day. :P Alright alright, at least on numerous occasions (pardon me, but I am a part-time lazy bum). So really, I do believe that thinking critically (yess, even about the Bible) is something we all must do. Not doing so is equivalent to throwing an insult to God who is the Giver of our ability to think.
I’m gonna keep this as short as possible. First obvious reason: I don’t wanna bore you. haha Of course, for a starting-off blog writer, having bored readers will really be a bummer. Second reason: it really can be a protracted and rather elongated discussion with this topic right here. So unless I’m gonna be writing a book out of this, I really had better keep this one short. :)
Ayt, now that that’s out of the way. Let’s start this.
Matthew 7 : 12 and Luke 6 : 31 both share a passage in which Jesus lays out a very simple statement persuading people on how to go about in their daily interactions with fellow humans. This saying of Jesus would later be known as The Golden Rule. Why is it Golden? Well, it’s really anybody’s guess, but I think it’s because it’s both so simple and morally sublime at the same time that it really had become a guideline of life from that point on. It simply goes like this: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Okay, we’ve heard that statement over and over again for so many years that I fear many of us have lost the appreciation for the brilliance of that rule. and the controversy it obviously stirred. Jesus was saying that to a crowd of Israel people who were under the subjugation of the fledgling Roman Empire. “Do unto those Romans as I would have them do unto me?!” thought a Jew (someone MUST have thought like that). The rule is obviously a brilliant one for many reasons I cannot go over here, but it is safe to say that it really has stuck in everybody’s mind ever since.
I’m not saying that that rule is not a correct one, nor is it morally plausible, or that it fails to reflect the moral standard that Jesus must have wanted us to live by. I am here to propose that that rule has a rather flawed presumption in it. It assumes that everybody must want to treated pleasantly / nicely / with dignity / the other good stuff.
I’ll break it down for ya.
To promote a society compatible with the recognizable Christian virtues, this reciprocity is indeed needed, for the reason that, if a person wants to be treated well, he must treat his neighbors well. If a second person wants to be treated well, he will treat his neighbors well as well. This condition goes on and on and on. Taken into whole, if everybody does this, it really will be, well, well for everyone, won’t it? :)
However, I’d like to question the “given” presumption here. What if not everybody wants to be treated well? What if a person actually wants to be treated without dignity, and even with treatments that we abhor and I bet will make us cringe?
This is my case in point (warning, this section here will contain some mental imagery, words, and thoughts that may provoke disbelief, shock, nausea, and difficulty of sleeping; you are warned):
A German, named Armin Meiwes, had a very peculiar disposition. He fantasized about consuming other humans (it’s cannibalism, duh). That fantasy apparently really grew in him that he actually posted an advert in the net which read as “looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed”. A number of people responded, but eventually backed off of any further follow up, except for one person who followed through. That responser’s name was Bernd Jurgen Brandes. The two adult male finally stroke a meeting, and went to Armin’s house where they proceeded with exactly everything they had bargained for. Armin amputated the willing Mr Brandes’ genital and ate it in front of him (oh, Mr Bernd was still alive at this point, as the video tape shows). They actually tried to eat that chunk of flesh together. Suffering a massive loss of blood, Bernd grew weaker by the minute and Armin, noticing this, offered the final blow that would take his life. He did so in a room specifically designed for such a purpose which he had built in his house. For a total of approximately 10 months, Armin would continually consume the dead man’s flesh, earning him the nickname The Rotenburg Cannibal.
Now, the media and general public outcry reveal a constant demonization of Armin Meiwes, perhaps rightly so. But I’d like to propose that Bernd Jurgen Brandes shared as much blame (well, it does depend on how you define what the blame is in this case; I am simply writing for convenience) in the occurrence. I mean, that person wanted to be eaten alive! Not for any moment did Armin force anybody to do anything he did not so desire.
Now, what say the Golden Rule about this? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” For the Mother Theresa’s out there, that won’t be a problem; it would actually be beneficial to many. Actually, to most of us, that rule will be wonderfully accepted, simply owing to the fact that most of the human population will wish to be treated well. But in the hands of the Bernd Brandes’s, we have a messy problem. Consider this train of thought:
S1: I will “do unto others as I would have them do unto me”.
S2: I would have someone eat me.
C: Therefore, I will eat others.
Sticky. Messy. Right. There.
The Golden Rule definitely works for many, but not for all. This, for all the effects it entitles, disqualifies The Golden Rule as a principle to live by. for everybody. in my opinion. :)
So what do I propose we do? “Love God; love people”. That, chaps, is the highest commandment. As simple as that!
That’s it for my first ever text entry! *claps claps* *pats pats* hehe It is my hope that this, for all there is to it, will make you think harder and more critically on any idea you may face in this life. Do read up on the stuff I wrote here; nothing complements a reading more than extra reading! :D Share your thoughts.
Cheers!
