Our Cosmic Conscience

by Louis E. Guzman Ph.D.

Speaking to his national audience, the television preacher sanctimoniously assured his listeners that humanists could not possibly have moral values approaching the Christian precepts established in the Bible.

In fact, he said, humanists had no basis on which to make claims to a moral code! After all, they are heretical materialists, relativists devoid of beliefs in a supreme being. As unbelievers in an all powerful "Creator" -- one who not only made the universe, but also gave humans the moral principles to which we must conform -- we were doomed to burn in hell.

What arrogance! But then I remembered my Mother's fears for me when I was young as she was convinced that I would meet a similar fiery end. Though I had not formed a moral code of my own, I felt that it could be found among earnest unbelievers, so I resolved to explore the secular world for the purpose of finding ethical precepts under which I could live a non-religious life.

I have since found the answers I sought. In the midst of World War II, H. Wilhelm Van Loon, a popular radio philosopher of the mid 20th century, once remarked on the air that Hitler was doomed to failure purely for the reason that his acts violated our universal cosmic conscience. This human collection of unconscious beliefs, he explained, was the universe of moral values, distilled out of social history, and occurring deeply set in the human conscience.

In fact, early last century the philosophical theme of natural law was in serious discussion, at least, among philosophers (John Dewey and others). More recently, the moral connotations of cosmic law, not very different from karmic principles, were to assure us that the highest of virtues will win in the end. And lately, the idea of a noetic reservoir of knowledge, or gnosis, akin to the second century C.E. gnostic thinking, has gained notice.

To take the idea of cosmic conscience seriously, we need to flesh out its principles. That's where writings of Paul Kurtz, Council for Secular Humanism and Peter Singer's, a creative writer on secular humanism, come into the picture. Taking them in reverse order, Singer's work, titled, How Are We To Live? ( Prometheus Books), scans the panorama of our ethical behavior, samples the ethics of another time, and points us toward a reasoned ethical life. Kurtz' Humanist Manifesto 2000 (Prometheus Books) expands our scope of humanistic interest to a planetary scale, and breaking away from our parochial view of reality, cites promising areas for an improved future. It ends with a list of elements for a "Planetary Bill of Rights."

More specifically, his editorial statement, "Without Religion," in the Winter 2002/03 number of FREE INQUIRY, enumerates four "Common Moral Decencies" -- Personal Integrity, Trustworthiness, Benevolence, and Fairness -- and ten "Ethical Excellences," Autonomy, Intelligence, Self-discipline, Self-respect, Creativity, High motivation, Affirmative attitude, Joie de vivre, Good health, and Exuberance.

For the moment, these will do for me as the content of our Cosmic Conscience. I find them far superior to the "Christian precepts" the television preacher was touting as a guide to "morality."

Louis E. Guzman Ph.D. was the first president of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs.

Originally published in February 2003.