Man's Shortcomings

This essay depicts man’s shortcomings and the ineffective ways in which government and religion deal with it. With the arrival of civilization about 30,000 years ago, man’s tendencies and character were well-established. Religion’s goal was essentially to protect man from man; protect man from nature; to ease his pain in the present; promise an afterlife; be protected by a loving, powerful, forgiving, vengeful, narcissistic and demanding father figure. This father figure God has been depicted as an old bearded and long-haired entity.

Historically, religious figures like Hammurabi of Babylon and Moses had established a moral code of principles for the masses. They knew that man treated man aggressively, without trust, with power, dominance, control, inhumanely and with disrespect. And, when man behaved in his typical manner toward others, he would be punished and have to answer to God, some mediator or some other man-made configuration. In fact, commoners would even have to pay for the privilege. As religion developed, violations of the moral code resulted in a sin. Man could confess to a middleman mediator, fast for a day, say 10 Hail Mary’s, pay a  fine, perform  community work, go on probation, be incarcerated and  then be free to sin again. In essence, religious figures defined amoral behavior, called it a sin and then had the commoners pay for the privilege.

A few of Hammurabi’s laws incorporated common man-made characteristics and tendencies such as slander; fraud; slavery and slaves as property; theft; liability; divorce; adultery and perjury. A few of the 10 Commandments that Moses engraved included: not take the Lord’s name in vain; honor thy father and thy mother; thou shall not kill; and thou shall not commit adultery. Christian 10 Commandments added: neither shall you steal; neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor’s; neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife; nor you shall not desire anything that is your neighbors.  These laws or commandments defined man’s interpersonal interactions accurately. One can argue that religious laws have not done much to change man’s nature and characteristics. By the same token, one could also argue that without religious laws, man’s behavior would be even more deplorable and despicable. Who can win that argument?

We had Kings, Queens and popes, with God’s permission, attempt to make things more bearable for the common man. We have evolved with various forms of government; different democracies and dictators dealing with human frailty of life on earth. In our country, we have, according to some, the best form of democracy ever created. We have numerous laws, rules, regulations and punishments for those that have broken the rules. Of course, not all are treated equally under the law. Maybe we have the most despicable individuals in the world? How else do your account for the fact that the United States has the largest prison population in the world and the highest per capita incarceration rate or 24.7% of the world’s 9.8 million prisoners?

What about the homicide rate in our country? Per 100,000 people per year, one statistic has the total for the United States being 6.9. Of that number 10.7 are males and 3.1 are females. By comparison, another high income nation is Canada. Canada’s numbers are 1.4 for the total. 1.94 For males and less than 1.0 for females are that countries statistics.

Considering divorce in the United States, the marriage rate is currently 6.8 per 1, 000 total population .The divorce rate is 3.2 per 1000 population as of 2014 according to the CDC. Those figures suggest that if getting married, there’s a 50 percent chance of divorce. A flip of the coin might be another way to decide about getting married.  Maybe all those good years of marriage might outweigh the terrible weight of divorce.

Lying and stealing are also popular in United States as it’s a theme depicted in movies, novels and social media. In fact, our Pinocchio commander has set records with his exaggerations. Lying is supposed to be a crime if you lie to congressional investigations. Everyone lies, tells a half truth or engages with lies of omission. To say that man is trustworthy is also misleading. Additionally, my friend, an engineer, worked for one of the big three auto companies. Every six months or year, they provided him with a new vehicle to drive. The company did not pay taxes and called that benefit “he was test driving the car.” Not only was that a lie, the company was also cheating by not paying taxes.

These are troubling statistics regarding man’s moral behavior as defined by some religions of the world. Are we the most amoral group of people? Perhaps, there is not any government nor any religion that can tame, limit, suppress, or control man’s inhumane nature. It does not seem to matter if God is alive or if God is dead as depicted by statistics on dealing with man’s amoral nature. Maybe, our standard for moral behaviors are just too strict, unrealistic and unattainable. No wonder it’s easy for religions and government to peddle fear of your neighbor, group, clan, country etc. Just look at the statistics, as we have generous amounts of hate, prejudice and discrimination. Maybe government contributes to man’s difficulty in getting along with others. If so, maybe everyone should be armed with an assault rifle. Just kidding about the rifle.