Hi Bernard
W.
I prepared this for my blog, in response to the question “did I
get my morals from the Bible?”
I am glad that I took more time to give you, a reasoned
reply. I was talking-out my prayers to [God] in the crib
at the age of 4 or 5. No bible was involved.My parents, and nurse-keepers certainly revealed rights and wrongs and more importantly, their unique awareness of me. They all did display kindly attitudes.
Did I get an awareness of the kindness, of Jesus early. Yes I attended the popular Sunday School lessons in English Protestant Churches. I was told a few stories, about his birth, and was part of the Choir and I was made aware of beauty of church atmosphere, and the huge Organ, and the man who played it with both hands and both feet. I became aware of the structured order and ceremonies.Then we travelled and visited other churches with different ceremonies.
This included Synagogues and the Catholic Church and then most often no church at all. I would say the last church was at 7 years of age.
At this age I was given a Bible; leather bound with thin strong pages edged with Gold. Just carrying that Book seemed to make me special. I still have that book. For the next 10 years the habit of going to church stopped. I'm not sure why, but suppose it had to do with my Mom and Dad being separated.
As I look back, that was traumatic and I became angry with my mother!
How I did get my education in Montreal?
In a School system patterned after the most excellent system in Scotland. That is where the notion of morality came in.
Reading was easy and natural, but the question....
after any story was what the moral of the story was.This question really puzzled me!
I never answered because I didn’t have an answer and chose not
to guess. It never ever occurred to me, that a similar story was in the Bible,
until I was in the High School where we studied literature and
Movie-Appreciation.In a School system patterned after the most excellent system in Scotland. That is where the notion of morality came in.
Reading was easy and natural, but the question....
after any story was what the moral of the story was.This question really puzzled me!
This school I attended, is where we had the best science labs and libraries. We had very strict teachers and deception and lying was unthinkable. We were taught to research and study and reason and write explanatory essays.
We also learned historical-geography, and French and Latin and
Mathematics,and Biology and Chemistry and Physics and Music.
So where did the principles of right and wrong flow-in over
time? And was it the Bible? Well it wasn’t the Bible Bernard.
Years later as an Adult I read the reasoning of C.S.Lewis and
the reasoning of Freud and reasoning of the Jesuit’s. I looked at evidence of
the bible for who was the best teacher.
There were no dilemma’s to solve. I also looked at the success
of Christianity in supporting Science.
There is one layer more to my argument and that is; it is we as individuals
who have to decide.
Like a court system where there is a Prosecutor and a Defense
Lawyer who both tell you "their" story of the evidence, there is confusion and
likelihood of attack that physically injures[Abuse]
Juries are chosen because they are the smartest among their
culture. Trust them, they take an oath before God.
Signed Don Wesley May 28, 2013.
donwesley1933@live.com
