Saturday, June 5, 2021

Woke to “natural law”

 Phil Beaver seeks to collaborate on the-objective-truth, which can only be discovered. The comment box below invites readers to write.

"Civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for individual happiness with civic integrity more than for the city, state, nation, or society.

Consider writing a personal paraphrase of the preamble, which offers fellow citizens mutual equality:  For discussion, I convert the preamble’s predicate phrases to nouns and paraphrase it for my interpretation of its proposal as follows:  "The good People of these" united states facilitate and encourage five civic disciplines---integrity, justice, peace, strength, and prosperity, "in order to” develop responsible human-independence “to ourselves and our Posterity.”I want to improve my interpretation by listening to other citizens and their interpretations yet would preserve the original, 1787, text, unless it is amended by the people.

It seems the Supreme Court occasionally refers to it, and no one has challenged whether or not the preamble is a legal statement. The fact that it changed this independent country from a confederation of states to a union of states deliberately managed by disciplined fellow citizens convinces me the preamble is legal. Equity in opportunity and outcome is shared by the people who collaborate for human justice.

Every citizen has equal opportunity to either trust-in and collaborate-on the goals stated in the preamble or be dissident to the agreement. I think 2/3 of citizens try somewhat to use the preamble but many do not articulate commitment to the goals. However, it seems less than 2/3 understand that “posterity” implies grandchildren. “Freedom of religion,” which fellow citizens have no means to discipline, oppresses freedom to develop integrity.

Selected theme from this week

Woke to “natural law”

Another of my major misconceptions lessened this week when it appeared to me that “natural law” in Anglo-American tradition addresses rights of man granted by the-God, which puts pressure on legislators&judges when their opinion conflicts with the-God. Merriam-Webster Online does not affirm that the-God is involved.

Political philosophers protect legislators&judges by not pointing out that “God” is a different entity to any two believers, and perhaps neither theist’s God is the-God.

The laws of physics&progeny determine humble-integrity, by which personal-integrity can be measured.

The Advocate “Our Views” from June 12, 2018

Strangely, after rendering 42 of my recent posts about a civic rather than civil culture to be read by me only, notified me that Jim Rumpf and Elaine O. Coyle had, on June 3, 2021, “liked” my comments on the June 12, 2018 Advocate’s views. I clicked on the message-link to the Advocate article and found no comments by me. That’s laughable:  The Advocate has been contacting me lately begging me to subscribe. What hypocrites! My copy is updated below after their URL from 2018. (Perhaps this is generated through Reddit, but I could not discover the facts. My civic complaints seem more reliable today than they did when I wrote them. In fact, I now see “the rule of law” as a fallacious construct against responsible-human-independence-RHI, suggested about 45 hundred years ago during the origins of monotheism; see the Sumerian literature labeled Genesis 1.)

(https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_86570780-6e7e-11e8-b7ff-23a402c6376d.html)

The Advocate personnel have no appreciation for individual integrity; otherwise, they would not make statements like, “Kennedy . . . typically favors sound bites over serious policy discussions.”

In a hypothetical Senate hearing on The Advocate personnel’s integrity, Senator Kennedy would have them packing to leave after his first question, much as Matthew Peterson withdrew: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-judicial-nominee-who-struggled-to-answer-basic-questions-pulls-out/2017/12/18/eadf1326-e424-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e18e4a6290bc. Kennedy has the integrity to help We the People of the United States although exposing a bad Trump choice.

The Advocate personnel and John Bel Edwards perhaps team up on West Point’s honor code and share the Louisiana legislative camaraderie that deceiving is not lying; https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/08/nyregion/reviewing-west-point-s-honor-code.html. I studied this West Point issue after I realized what a mistake it was for the local GOP to allow Edwards access to the Governor’s mansion. Perhaps The Advocate personnel publish unreliably on their own.

And Edwards’ apparent Vatican partnership might allow for him to team up with seeming minister coalitions like Together Baton Rouge, an Alinsky-legacy affiliate. These Chapter XI Machiavelli associations don’t help the fact that Edwards has industries in disarray about who to trust regarding state tax subsidies.

Louisiana people are crying for relief from nursing home legislative graft. Edwards could have provided the leadership to save $200 million, but did not; http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_ba5a089c-2bb8-11e8-830e-e7b818c796ce.html.

Edwards called a seventh session because he cannot be trusted, yet is stubborn to get more money to spend. Following the honor code, an abject failure for the people, Edwards ought to step aside.

The Advocate has the individual power, the individual energy, and the individual authority (IPEA) to develop integrity. Until its personnel begin to promote their IPEA for integrity, The Advocate has no chance of reversing its unreliability.

Quora

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-true-difference-between-morality-and-legality? by Jay Harewood

A positive culture pursues civic-integrity to the-ineluctable-truth in order to legislate civil constraints in the continual quest for statutory justice: a negative culture uses majority opinion to develop&preserve the rule of law.

That is to say, the laws of physics&progeny prevail in the slow indictment&reform of law.

For example, priestly pederasty is de-mystified by “DNA and taped evidence” (see https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4003). Yet the Church has not put to rest the mystery of celibacy.

The Church would do the world a favor by encouraging&practicing responsible-human-independence (RHI) according to the laws of physics, whether the-God is involved or not. In other words, it’s OK for parishioners to develop hope and comfort from their-God as long as they trust the-God enough to follow the Genesis 1:26-28 charge to constrain chaos during their lives.

https://www.quora.com/Who-What-determines-what-is-right-or-wrong? by Hrithik Verma

Preface: I answer individual’s questions they share on Quora out of appreciation for what I learn from their creativity. In other words, the question does not merely segue to what I wanted to say. It prompts me to think in a new way, based on the questioner’s creativity. Please see my appreciations post at promotethepreamble.com for your name, Mr. Verma, and this date.

Of course, I don’t know the-ineluctable-truth and can only share my earned opinion: I think right conforms to the laws of physics&progeny and wrong eventually accepts the march to human-integrity.

For example, the ancients perceived the earth the center of the universe. However, we now think the earth orbits the sun, which is not at the center of our galaxy much less the universe. Further, there may be other universes. In short, we don’t know about cosmic centricity. Yet our not knowing does not lessen the facts and to speculate lessens the integrity “I don’t know”.

An ancient political philosopher suggested that the-God assigned to female&male-humankind the responsibility to order for all species life on earth. In other words, the philosopher speculated that humankind can, independent of the source of everything, order life on earth. Since they can, the responsibility is theirs, and the-God will not usurp their opportunity. That is to say, RHI is powerful, and dependency is weak.

However, so far, the majority of human-kind has chosen dependency on their-God or government to take their individual duty to develop RHI for civic-integrity. The consequence we observe in 2021 is chaos in the world and in the United States. Christians are indignant that their Anglo-American political-correctness has not prevailed. Make no mistake: the political philosophy to destroy the-rule-of-law rather than establishing at last the rule of necessity&justice is worse than Anglo-American tradition. But insistence on tradition rather than justice invites ruin.

Physics seems right and metaphysics seems wrong.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-privacy-so-important-for-some-people-What-are-the-practical-purposes-behind-privacy? by Viktor Bondarchuk

Of course it depends upon the person, especially the ones who accept that they are a human-being and therefore independently responsible to constrain chaos in their behavior. So few persons accept these two principles that is difficult to find anyone with whom to converse, let alone to mutually develop individual happiness.

Privacy would not be as important in a culture of humble-integrity toward the-ineluctable-truth. However, most cultures focus on their God, neglecting sufficient appreciation of the-God that controls events. Perhaps the-God is the creator, physics&its-progeny, chaos, humankind’s ultimate approach to statutory justice, or other.

By developing cultural-Gods, groups of people divide themselves from responsible-human-independence (RHI). Consequently, humankind cannot, so far, fulfill its purpose: to independently establish peace on earth. The fellow-citizen who wants to practice and encourage RHI must privately pursue perfection of their person.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-ethical-considerations-of-using-donor-biological-material-to-have-kids? by Melissa Birch

Humankind works to discover&benefit-from the laws of physics&its-progeny, such as biology and psychology.

A person of unique dignity&equity begins as a human ovum in an authentic woman’s body. By “authentic” I mean a woman who is aware-of&attentive-to her physical&psychological wellness for both herself and her viable ova. An authentic male is similarly attentive to his wellness. He protects the woman and her ova from sexual intimacy. Authentic spouses seek mutual bonding for life, so that children, grandchildren, and descendants beyond benefit from their family.

Most spouses seek civil recognition for their bond. However, the marriage ceremony does not challenge the couple’s reliability to rear a family. Consequently, many couples divorce and many keep unhappy families.

In the U.S., there are perhaps 800 million viable ova per year and 4 million live births. Thus, 99.5% of ova perish. About 0.14 million babies are adopted each year, or 3.5% of births. About 0.085 million/year go un-adopted, or 2.1% of births.

Does “kids” express appreciation for the dignity and equity due a newborn person? Does “biological material” appreciate gametes or a surrogate-mother’s womb?

I do not think the entrepreneurs who offer artificial reproduction services should be encouraged.

https://www.quora.com/unanswered/To-what-extent-do-the-ideals-of-the-Enlightenment-still-exist-today? by Abigail Huang

The most egregious bemusement is individual-rights, especially life, liberty, happiness, property, and freedom. Necessity&justice make it plain that responsible-human-independence is achievable. The only human-right a government ought to encourage and facilitate it the opportunity to develop humble-integrity, by which to gauge personal-integrity and responsibly pursue personal happiness.

However, the church&state partnership exploits human vulnerability&gullibility. They inculcate in a nation’s youth that hard work and obedience to the government fulfills the parents’ personal higher-power to eventually relieve grandchildren, if not children, from church&state abuses: fostering human-conflict and war. Then, they vainly promise liberty&freedom, lame substitutes for independence. As we saw in 2020, liberty is too often license to let fellow-citizens’ blood.

The human-being has the individual power, the individual energy, and the individual authority (HIPEA) to constrain chaos in their way of living. Using HIPEA for the-good rather than for temporal infidelity is in the individual’s self-interest. The partnership expresses this as “discipline for your own good”. The partnership stresses obedience to personal God or other higher power, distracting from the self-interest to the living individual. Some church-state partnerships attempt to substitute hopes-for-a-favored-afterdeath for the individual’s happiness-during-life. Hopes for a golden afterdeath or a higher status in reincarnation can ruin the chance to discover and practice humble-integrity.

History shows that neither government nor the-God, whatever is in charge of events, will usurp the individual’s opportunity to establish responsible-human-independence (RHI). It is up to the individual to discover&accept each that 1) they are a human-being, 2) have HIPEA to either practice fidelity or pursue crime, and 3) can perfect their unique person by developing humble-integrity.

Now, to your question, Enlightenment suppressed the 45 hundred year-old suggestion in Genesis 1:26-28, in my 2021 view, that the-God (in my view the laws of physics&its progeny) hold that humankind, female&male-human-being, is in charge of providing order&peace on earth; each individual to constrain chaos in their life. Enlightenment created the false dichotomy; law (human opinion) versus God’s will (a mystery).  

Eventually, “the-rule-of-law” must conform to the laws of physics&its-progeny; including religion.

Religion is developed on the unknowns of physics. For example, someone speculated that not only does a viable human begin as an ovum in a woman’s body, but the conceived, gestated, and delivered infant has a soul. Parents and the community are obligated to appeal to personal-Gods for favor to that soul. No one worries about the-God’s reaction to that neglect. Neglect seems logical, since no one has ever interviewed a soul. It’s a mystery about a mystery.

There is no way I want to alter a person’s beliefs about soul, but that does not mean I cannot share my opinion about it and let them decide their future. The people who exploit human gullibility do not share my choice to not influence the mystery of soul. They use it to bemuse people into defending-the-faith “to ourselves and our Posterity” quoting the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

Thereby, the exploiters maintain the church&state-partnership into perpetuity. So far, the tyranny has survived in the U.S. for 232 years.

It’s time for “ourselves and our Posterity” of 2021 to set aside bemusing government bestowals, freedom&liberty, in order to establish responsible-human-independence to fellow-citizens who want it. And to encourage&facilitate reform to dependents such as criminals and tyrants. 

 These suggestions seem preposterous, but I think only because church&state partnerships are in control and oppose RHI, responsible-human-independence.

I write to learn and would appreciate comments.

Robert Akridge  

I prefer responsible-human-interdependence.

PRB: Isn’t that an oxymoron? That’s OK for your life, and it is your option to take.

I do not know but think your preference does not conform to the suggestion in Genesis 1:26–28: in the-God’s image, you are in charge of chaos in your life. You may be dependent upon fellow-citizens of the world only to the extent that they will carry your life-style; rich or poor. It seems a matter of necessity&justice.

I’m sticking with my preference: RH Independence.

https://www.quora.com/1-How-did-natural-law-theory-originate-Of-law-in-natural-law-theory? by Loigie Lapinid

Mr. Lapinid, I write my opinion to learn from others. When I learn, I add the teacher’s name and the date on my “appreciations” page at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com. If they object, I maintain the appreciation with only their first name.

To your question:  Merriam Webster Online has for natural law “a body of law or a specific principle held to be derived from nature and binding upon human society in the absence of or in addition to positive law” and for positive law “law established or recognized by governmental authority”. By these definitions, “the rule of law” must ultimately reform to natural law.

I had taken “natural law” to mean the laws of physics&its-progeny, including religion or belief of speculation about unknowns, (and will probably continue to prefer my hard-earned opinion). “Nature” is inadequate to designate physics&its-progeny, reason can only respond to physics&its-progeny, and too few theists reserve sufficient humility toward the-God---whatever controls the unfolding of events in the universe.

For the past few months I have been fascinated by Genesis 1, perhaps written 45 hundred years ago about or by a political philosopher in Sumer, probably Ur, founded about 58 hundred years ago. I speculate that the philosopher expressed his opinion about the-God during the birth of monotheism. Like most people, the philosopher assumed the listener took “God” to be “the-God” but typically that is not so. People discuss their personal-Gods, often for a lifetime, never accepting that they could express humility toward the-God.

Note that this period in history precedes Judaism. Genesis 2 begins their story. Christians often reason that the Old Testament as erroneous. Perhaps the Judeo-Christian-Islam story begins with the-God telling Abraham to leave Ur about 38 hundred years ago (see https://www.genesisforordinarypeople.com/discussions/patriarchs-timeline-pete-and-paul).

Returning to your topic, “natural law theory”, it seems at least addressed in Genesis 1:26-28. Zipping forward to my 2021 opinion, I think the writer expressed that the-God (perhaps physics) charges female&male-human-being to independently order life on earth; provide peace; constrain chaos. While the-God remains a mystery, the suggestion that each person who accepts being a human-being may choose to constrain chaos in their lifetime seems practical and neglected. How neglected?

It seems that throughout history priests&politicians have exploited the gullibility of the middle class to work-hard and accept the laws of church&state. It works, so far, because people just want to live in comprehensive safety&security so that they can responsibly pursue the happiness they want at each stage of life rather than submit-to the vision someone else has for them. That is, they do not want to do the work to hold church&state accountable for vaunted promises: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, for example.

The last suggestion church&state want fellow-citizens to discover is attributed to the-God of Genesis 1:  The individual can constrain chaos in their lifestyle. In fact, they are charged to perfect their unique selves so as to fulfill the-God’s image.

Is there a God for the people who believe in Jesus? Should they think Jesus told them to perfect their person? Should they believe Jesus said, “Before Abraham was born I AM”? Jesus did not write. But was the author of Genesis 1 writing about Jesus or his influence?

Is Jesus the originator of natural law theory?

I hope you find this essay interesting and would appreciate your comments.

https://www.quora.com/Does-nihilism-lead-to-individualism? by Aman Aman

I don’t think so.

Consider Merriam-Webster online: for individualism “a doctrine that the interests of the individual are or ought to be ethically paramount” and for nihilism “a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless”.

Someone who attempts membership in a nihilism group isolates self from civic fellow-citizens, defined by their fidelity to the-ineluctable-truth. For example, the civic fellow-citizen honestly expresses their personal-God and retains sufficient humility toward the-God-of-creation (be it either a deity, the source of potential energy, or the initiator of its conversion to kinetic energy and mass at the big bang.

My practice is to insist “I do not know” the-ineluctable-truth and merely perceive the-objective-truth I have considered. I do not object if a fellow-citizen disagrees with my opinion: they could be correct for them, and I will consider if their view is correct for me.

https://www.quora.com/In-an-age-where-cancel-culture-is-prevalent-how-do-you-gain-the-courage-to-fight-for-what-you-believe-is-right-and-true? by Freddy Screwher

I don’t call frank expression “courage” at all. I call it expressing my opinion when I neither know the-ineluctable-truth nor perceive the-objective-truth. If the other party stonewalls me, it’s their loss. Also, I always prefer my opinion until someone shows me a better way. I do the work necessary to confirm it is better, then adopt their improvement and date it on my appreciations page at promotethepreamble.bogspot.com.

On May 25, Facebook rendered my last 42 posts readable only by me, for reasons I do not know. They saved me loads of time, which I need dearly. Maybe Facebook will reform, so I kept my account.

Now in my fourth quarter-century, my personal-culture has been publically canceled the entire journey. Each time I express my hard earned opinion, the other party foolishly labels me an atheist. They might say they will pray for me or for my soul, but exchange of ideas is totally cut off from that moment.

At a meeting to encourage civic use of the U.S. Preamble, a fellow-citizen asked, “Are you saved by the precious blood of Jesus?” When I said “No” he walked out. A retired nun did not object, but later, at a chance greet at a Walmart, she said, “He had no right to ask you that question.”

In Sunday school, the teacher called me a heretic and when I asked a monsignor to serve me a wafer in Remembrance, so I could go to communion with my family, he said he loved the Church too much to bend its rules: I would have to accept transubstantiation. A neighbor said he would sponsor me to join the Church. When I declined, he no longer spoke to me. At a funeral for a mutual friend, a parishioner asked, “Phil Beaver, what are you doing in Church?”

Jack told me that if we were to remain friends I would not mention the U.S. Preamble in his presence. When I finished the phone call, I told my wife, “Jack withdrew his friendship.” During our 51 years’ marriage, she has witnessed me accept many ultimatums.

Long ago, I realized that when two Christians discuss “God”, each speaks for their God and neither reserves sufficient humility towards the-God. When Biden says, “. . . may God protect our troops” he reserves no humility for the-God.

It seems no president accepts that the war for independence was declared in 1776 under nature and its source with an appeal for military providence “to the Supreme Judge of the world”. Many formerly loyal British colonists worshipped the same Trinity as their English brethren and took individual-human-responsibility to shoot red-coated soldiers. And the 1776 founders negotiated French military providence in 1778.

https://www.quora.com/The-value-of-justice-is-higher-than-the-value-of-life-Explain-Why-do-you-think-this-statement-is-true? by Glydel Teppang

May I express my opinion? When a life is taken based on legal precedent, which is “the rule of law”, it is subject to error and thus may not be justice.

However, under statutory justice, the death penalty is critical to responsible-human-independence: the civic citizen must constrain criminals.

The U.S. Constitution intends to develop “ourselves and our Posterity” by correcting erroneous written law until statutory justice is approached or attained. Statutory justice is founded on the-ineluctable-evidence, grounded in physics&its-progeny rather than in the unknowns.

https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-most-commonly-accepted-double-standard-in-our-society-that-we-hardly-realize-by-ourselves? by Andrew Ray

We demand fidelity from others but do not constrain chaos in personal behavior.

https://www.quora.com/Who-decides-what-is-right-and-wrong-excluding-the-heinous-stuff-Surely-it-is-personal-choice? by Paul Lucy Savage

I think, for success in life, the human-being must conform to the laws of physics&its-progeny, such as biology& psychology.

Exploiters nurture “the rule of law” in order to prevent the people from encouraging&facilitating public discipline “to ourselves and our Posterity”. That is to say, public-discipline ultimately comports to the laws of physics.

For example, strength is the key to peace with other nations: a nation’s military might must exceed the other’s.

Physics&its-progeny respond to neighter “human rights”, arbitrary values&judgement, nor opinion.

The person who accepts that they are a human-being constrains chaos in their life.       

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-one-person-or-group-behind-the-proverbial-curtain-that-could-be-responsible-for-psychologically-engineering-what-a-society-as-a-whole-gradually-begins-to-view-as-normal-or-acceptable-behavior? by Mark Thomas Carr

It seems obvious (to me) that the Democrat Party wants the temporal power that selling out to foreign nations and the Catholic Church may bring them. By temporal, I mean ultimately the Democrat Party will be aliens to the foreigners. I say “may”, because We the People of the United States can stop the Democrat’s sell-out.

But I prefer to focus on the 1789 domestic tyrants, who imposed Protestant-Christian religion on the U.S. as a religion-Congress-independence from We the People of the United States. The 1789 Congress exploited the fact that 99% of free citizens were factional-American-Protestant-Christians and would not object to “freedom of religion”. The principle is expressed as Chapter XI Machiavellianism: the-church-state partnership can pick the people’s pockets with immunity, because the people expect their God to relieve their children and beyond from the pain and loss. In Machiavelli’s example, the Church eventually breaks the partnership.

In a nation that is established by war, the victor claims the prerogative to bestow freedom& liberty according to the victor’s laws&licensing. However, every human-being has the individual power, the individual energy, and the individual authority to develop responsible-human-independence. Therefore, it is only a matter of time until the living “ourselves and our Posterity” demand reforms.

First, amend the First Amendment so as to encourage&facilitate civic humble-integrity rather than impose civil religious-opinion. Second, reform the Court so as to defend the U.S. Preamble’s pursuit of statutory justice on the-ineluctable-evidence rather than on precedential “rule-of law”. Third, require voters to demonstrate current contributions to the U.S. proffered-proposition as a qualification to vote. Fourth, restore the 1782 motto “E Pluribus Unum” and admit that it applies to personal-God humility toward the-God. Eliminate “under God” from the pledge and “so help me God” from oaths of office. That’s a start toward a civic culture of necessity&justice.

Phil Beaver does not “know.” He trusts in and is committed to the-objective-truth which can only be discovered. Conventional wisdom has truth founded on reason, but it obviously does not work.

Phil is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, education non-profit corporation. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com, and consider essays from the latest and going back as far as you like.

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