In the document, A Declaration of Peace, posted on the web at significatojournal.com/peace/, “Universal Principle of Peace” number twelve states:
The World of True Peace is a world of family relationships under God. Nations will live in peace when the overriding desire of each nation is to serve the citizens of all nations as true brothers and sisters, bound together by a common heart of love.
I’ve often reflected about the fact that a person’s decisions and actions are driven by their concepts, attitudes and heart. When one approaches a city bureaucrat and asks for something, the answer often doesn’t depend on the “law” but on the official’s state of mind on that particular day (especially if the law is a bit vague). This is also why lawyers will make an effort to present their cases to judges that are favorably predisposed toward their particular issues. Laws and traditions can be changed as easily as they are made.
If we look at the long range of human history and the attitudes that peoples and nations have had toward others, we can see how vital it is that we pay attention to what we are teaching our children in the 21st century. Do we want our children to grow up to become voters and leaders that are callous and bigoted, or do we want our children -- and the children of the world -- to espouse the viewpoint that all people are indeed brothers and sisters under a parental God of love?
Take Julius Caesar, for example. He was praised as a victor when he returned to Rome with the spoils and slaves from his Gallic campaign. Can you imagine an American general returning from the “campaigns” in Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam or Iraq with thousands of slaves in tow, and receiving praise from the American people upon his return? We would be horrified, and immediately lock the general up, and return the “slaves” to their native lands. It must of course be noted that America did not enter those wars with the goal of conquest, but rather one of liberation. That in itself was a major advance in the history of war.
Civilization is advancing and the zeitgeist of the world is becoming enlightened, however slowly or spottily. Human rights abuses still exist; communism still exists; tyrants still rule. Yet now, with the power of the Internet to propagate values and change human thought faster than ever before, our world has a real chance to evolve. Victor Hugo heralded the “idea whose time has come”. I believe that our struggle now is to win the hearts and minds of those who have not yet adopted the ethic that service toward others is the route to happiness.
One way to affect this change is to use the power of multiplication. The more we talk about the core values that are necessary for peace, the more conversations we start, the more we write and publicize these issues, the more impact we will have. Let the Internet Bloggers get to work! The news media (and television and movies) should also do much more to take responsibility for this issue. I’d like to see far more news commentaries and stories about champions of peace and the efforts that are being made to achieve lasting world peace.
I would also like to see schools around the world take a much larger role in teaching each generation of children to adopt and actualize the concept articulated by the statement: “Nations will live in peace when the overriding desire of each nation is to serve the citizens of all nations as true brothers and sisters, bound together by a common heart of love.
Imagine a high school that graduates a thousand teenagers, who have all been taught the above value system. Now imagine all the high schools and colleges everywhere, in all nations of the world, adopting that same value system and making it a priority in their educational curriculum. What an impact that would have! One might say that this is a pipe dream, but it’s really not. Look at how much the concepts of “PC” (politically correct) thought have impacted our educational institutions. Look at how monolithic (and stultifying) the education system has become in many Muslim countries. It is certainly clear that we can teach values if we want to: it remains to be seen what values will win the day. I recommend that governments legislate that schools must teach unselfish values like that contained in point twelve above.
Legislation might seem like a radical approach, or even a violation of church and state. I'm not recommending a state sponsored religion. I'm simply advocating that governments codify a standard of universal ethics and civic duties that can be taught to all children. It will benefit everyone if children learn to be unselfish as a normal way of life.
Some people might feel that ethical education is not the purvue of the government. They might point out that it’s the unity of church and state in the Muslim world that has allowed human rights abuses to flourish in some Muslim countries. All valid arguments indeed. Many forward thinking Muslims believe that Muslim governments should become secular, in order to safeguard human rights. I agree, mostly. My view is that all governments should allow religious freedom and should be functionally secular, but that all governments should also adopt “God-centered ethics”, as stated above in point twelve and in the text “A Declaration of Peace”. Banishing God completely from government is a disservice to the human race, and is as oppressive as a religious dictatorship.
In the text, A History of the Modern World, by R. R. Palmer, from Princeton University (Second Edition, Revised with the Collaboration of Joel Coton, Duke University, 1963), the author states, on page 38, "The chief accomplishment of Thomas Aquinas was his demonstration that faith and reason could not be in conflict." Then on page 39, he continues:
"In Thomas's time, there were some who said that Aristotle and the Arabs were infidels, dangerous influences that must be silenced. Any reasoning about the faith, they warned, was a form of weakness. Thomas's doctrine that faith could not be endangered by reason gave a freedom to thinkers to go on thinking. Here Latin Christendom may be contrasted with the Moslem world. It was ruled, in about the time of Thomas Aquinas, that valid interpretation of the Koran had ended with the Four Great Doctors of early Islam. As Moslems said, the Gate was closed. Arabic thought, so brilliant for several centuries, withered away."
I believe that our battle today is in the realm of ideas, centering upon the “God or No God” question, and then revolving around questions about the nature, intent and motivation of God as they relate to unselfishness, true love and peace. All secular and religious people owe it to themselves and to each other to vigorously discuss these questions in an atmosphere of religious freedom and mutual respect. Can it be so hard to reach a consensus that unselfish love and service toward all nations and peoples are the most powerful and universal virtues of the human race? For the world’s survival, we must make it so.
