Ethical Studies

“There are two wolves fighting in everyone of us, one is Good and the other Evil. The one who will win, is the one you feed.” - Editted version of a Cherokee Legend

There is always a need to remind us of the goodness in each and everyone of us. It is said in many psychological studies that whatever we put our focus on, it is that which will influence us. The mind is very malleable and hence a constant feed of healthy thoughts and actions is a very necessary ingredient for each and everyone of us to shine brightly.

There is a Chinese idiom, a man who doesn't read for three days will have a face that is hated/hateful (三日不讀書，面目可憎). This is to say that, when one is no longer receiving positive feed from the classic texts, it is easy for one to be tempted by the various evils of the world.

This is a very important factor to counteract the lack of empathy in the current society, whereby many people focus only for the benefits and well being of themselves. Also, it is worthy of note that this is the negative feed the society is giving to us as we speak.

The columnist who tells you how you need to defend yourself against the politics of your office. The drama series that show how people are greedy and would do all sorts of evil to attain wealth. The news that speak of mindless massacres happening here and there, by random mad people. The friends who tell you to go have some fun with that pretty girl you've just met. Business partners who no longer believe in creating values for the society but rather creating demands and sales for your products.

We see negative examples in the society everyday. Negative feed to our emotions and mental well being. It is paramount to realise this, as well as to realise that we can counteract this effect by ethical studies.

However, we have an awkward situation with ethical studies here. Ethics is almost always linked with religion, as it seems, to many, that human are unable to be ethical without the interference of religion. Even systems of ethics like Confucianism & Taoism have been religionised, for the lack of ability to relate with ethics without involving religion.

This is not a very healthy thing, as it will cause two major problems.
#1, people who are religious will see secular people as immoral and unethical. Such a view cannot be accepted, because people who don't have a religion can still be very ethical. Just like the criticism given by the secularists that religious people can be unethical. Ethics and religions do not correlate as much as people have made themselves to believe.

#2, people who are secular and do not wish to be labelled as religious may do immoral or unethical things just to state their stance. This is a sad effect of several possibilities, such as religious extremism, confusion between relationship of relgious devotion and ethics.

The opposition here is the automatic assumption that a person is considered moral and ethical only if the person is religious, i.e without being religious, a person is taken automatically as immoral and unethical. So, it is hoped that the readers will realise that despite ethics is a major part of most religions, ethics need not necessarily be linked with religion.

In order for a more universal participation, it is preferable to have non-religious ethical studies. However, this will greatly limit the available sources for study. So, a simple model is proposed to overcome this problem: take theology off the topic and focus on morality and ethics.

An example:
In the book of Genesis of the Jewish and Christian bible, was recorded of two generations that will be discussed here, namely the generation of Noah and the generation of the Tower of Babel.

In the generation of Noah, it was described that "the earth was filled with violence" (Gen 6:11) and the whole generation except for the family of Noah was wiped out.

In the generation of Tower of Babel, it was described that "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech" (Gen 11:1) and "they said: 'Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" (Gen 11:4). It was being implied that the people were rebelling against God and their language was confused into many languages.

From a human standpoint, which of the generations made a worse mistake? Some will be inclined to say that it is the generation of the Tower of Babel, as these people were rebelling against God which created them.

However, from a human standpoint, which of the generations got the worse punishment? Now, most people will start to be puzzled. Why was the generation of Noah wiped out while the generation of Tower of Babel were merely confounded?

From the two stories, it can be deduced that there is the possibility that treating humans with love and kindness is much more important than trying to “please” God with what we now know as religions. So, the ethical point made here is that it is more important to treat humans with respect than to “treat” God with “respect”, as what we deem as respecting God may not be the right way at all, as seen in some religious extremists that ended up with suicide bombing in the name of God.

Following this simple story and deduction, the focus of the audience can be put into how we can treat each other with love and respect without being in direct contradiction to one's beliefs, instead of trying to convince each other to their own beliefs.

Notice also that, in the story, nothing is said about who God is and the ways God execute His actions. The focus is on the fact that we are told two stories and what we can possibly learn from the stories. One can find similar examples in other sources.

A non-religious source with similar message to treat humans with respect is that of Emmanuel Kant's 3 Maxims. The first maxim is universality. If something is acceptable if done by the whole wide world, then likely it is not unethical. For example, is it acceptable to cut queues? Imagine if everyone cuts any queues they get into. This will end up with disaster, hence it is considered unethical.

Consider a different scenario, if someone approaches the queue from the tail end, asking each of the person in front for permission to swap location because of a valid reason. Now, if everyone with valid reasons ask for permission to swap position with the person in front, is this an acceptable scenario? Given that the right of the person in front is retained, i.e. the person can decide to swap or maintain as the person deem fit, then this is acceptable and hence this act of asking for permission to swap position is an acceptable act. No one else in the queue lose or gain anything, except for the two parties who decided to swap position. This maxim puts a strong focus on respecting each other, as we will automatically reject behaviours that are unacceptable for us to be adopted by ourselves.

The second maxim is that humans should be considered as the ends and not the means to some ends. This means that we are to treat people as people, not tools to achieve our own agenda. This maxim directly puts the emphasise on humans.

The third maxim is that of duty. Each and every person should take the responsibility on the actions taken by themselves. We have to be our own ethical police and guard ourselves against unethical acts as we have the ability to think and draw conclusions. If we were to act as we wish, then we will be of no difference from any animals you can find, acting on instinct and urges.

As demonstrated above, simple lessons can come in many forms in many context. It pays for us to study and gain affinity to these lessons and examples, so that they can inculcate in us a natural positive and ethical response to challenges we face in life.

Let's reiterate the major points:

• Ethical studies keep us reminded and influence us toward positive actions
• Equating ethics with religion or religion with ethics can be disastrous
• We can make use of ethical examples from both religious and non-religious sources
• We can make the world a better place

With this, it is hoped that we have provided enough information for you all to have enough information on the importance of ethical studies and be able to focus on ethical studies without being sucked into deep religious debates.