Where would we find the standard? In the past, present or future? What would be the central factor that sets the standard? Would the standard be set by money, knowledge or power?
Could a person set the standard?
We can say that the standard should be based on the mind.
It would only be natural that the standard be based on the mind, but the mind also varies.
Sometimes it is beautiful and other times it is ugly. Would the standard be based on a school record, or on religion, or on God?
Through this topic, we need to determine what has value for our lives.
The Korean word for treasure literally means "material treasure".
In talking about value we often are referring to material value; usually a treasure is based on material value.
What determines a standard of value?
First, something of value will last for a long time, has an unique eternal and unchanging quality. Gold for instance is not easily changed.
These are the quality of value for material things.
People talk about the value of material things, but do not see a person as a treasure. Minimum wage is still under 9 dollars an hour. How cheap a man is!
Why haven't people been regarded as treasure? People will go to war and kill other people to obtain material treasure or territory. This is a real problem. How did a human become less valuable than gold?
A pearl has a harmonized color which is beautiful.
Gold and pearls are very soft, while diamonds are very hard. Would you exchange your loved one for gold?
Would you give up your loved one's little finger for an equal amount of diamonds? Is that a good deal? If someone offered you a diamond as big as your wife or husband, would you trade them in?
Then this means that men and women are more valuable than gems.
What do men have that makes them more valuable than diamonds?
It is his sparkling eyes or his skin?
Do you have the three qualities of value?
Men and women change. Do you have valuable quality only when you are young and pretty, or also when you are old? Why do you prefer a warm, embracing person over an aloof and distant person?
When it is warm, people tend to relax, but when it is cold everyone automatically tries to protect himself.
Warm weather causes people to be more expansive and relaxed. Do your favorite things change or not? People are changeable, particularly women!
Changeable women are less liked than more stable women, right?
Would the changeable quality be true for men also?
The three qualities of value apply to people as well as material things.
Therefore, a person who has a changeable quality has no everlasting value or uniqueness.
Man has two aspects: a mind and body. Which changes more? Does your conscience change more than your physical desires?
People who believe in the theory of evolution, say that there is not much difference between the make up of men and animals.
By holding to this belief, one tends to believe that animal behavior and conflict is also inherent in men, is natural and will last forever. With this kind of ideology, a world of true, everlasting peace where man has freedoms within principle cannot exist.
They also say that the mind's desires are an illusion and that there is no such thing as an absolute standard of conscience.
They feel we are just material and there is no such thing as a permanent ideal.
In other words, if we are no better than animals just existing without a true purpose, then there is no room for a permanent standard for which to live.
Therefore, no permanent quality of value can exist.
If you and I are truly descended from monkeys, then man is also only an animal. Do you think that monkeys live by moral standards or ethics?
There are no such standards as keeping one's purity in the monkey world.
But man is more advanced culturally, but seems to be changing into more like the monkeys because men and women just have casual sex together like the monkeys.
Those who uphold moral values seem to be losing the debate with evolutionist because they cannot show how men and women are really different from animals.
In order to be able to distinguish men from animals, even though evolutionists do not believe in God, we would have to create even an imaginary God who could be the embodiment of some absolute standard. Otherwise there is no other way to win the battle.
Without an absolute standard, mankind cannot survive.
God has been neglected by mankind throughout history, but now we have reached a deadlock.
In the animal world, the stronger animal attacks the weaker ones.
Is this natural in the human world?
Do humans naturally need power in order to protect themselves? There is certain conduct that needs standards. To determine those standards, we need a foundation. Would this be formed by the body or the conscience?
Moral quality has to pursue a tangible value, such as justice and honor.
The mind works by combining intelligence, heart and will power.
Human value is based on conscience, which has an everlasting quality.
At the same time, everyone will like and agree on the value of the conscience.
The conscience should be needed morning and night and every moment of our lives. That is the kind of standard we have to come up with.
The quality that defines a person of treasure, comes from his conscience and mind, which is eternal and unchanging.
In the Orient, when there is a bad person, we say he has a bad mind, we never say he has a bad body.
When you value someone, you value his mind saying his state of mind or thinking is good, not his appearance.
In criminal law, it is important the person's motives to commit the crime, motive is intangible. Motivation comes from the mind, and the body reacts to that.
Does the conscience pursue good or evil things?
The answer will be the same 1,000 years from now. If you ask someone from 10,000 years ago, their answer will be the same.
This means that the conscience has an unchanging quality. Thus, we say that the conscience is at the base of value.
Therefore, the man's unique value comes from his conscience.
Why do we appreciate the three qualities of value in material things?
There must be some corresponding aspect in man which include those qualities.
We appreciate those qualities in certain things because we have them within ourselves. That reciprocal relationship is the key to determine value.
We can see the same principle in the relationship between man and God.
We are not the universal subject of creation, so we cherish these qualities of values because there is a first cause which initiated this.
Evolution tries to deny the power of the conscience by saying that it is only the by product of material which came about by itself. That material came into existence first and conscience is like a side effect.
Evolutionists don't accept the idea of a first cause, or God.
Evolutionist say that conscience is like animal instinct which evolved to a higher status.
Do you feel good to hear that you descended directly from monkeys?
Evolutionists do not have any solutions to the human problems of today. In order to distinguish ourselves from the animal world, we need to have God and if no real God exists we still have to make an imaginary one. Otherwise there is no solution to the deep problems of humanity.
For the last ten years I have been spending an incredible amount of money inviting the world's leading scholars to come and think about absolute value, but they don't even want to think about it. Everyone wants to deny there is absolute value, saying there is only relative value; they keep saying they are tired of hearing about absolute value. They are asking me to change the subject of the conference, but I have refused. I know that, no matter how great these academics are, they cannot find absolute value because it can't be observed in a laboratory or test tube.
Scholars try to determine everything through their physical senses. They do not recognize anything that does not come their way or is intangible.
The physical senses cannot perceive the spiritual reality or anything beyond the material world like God.
There is no way you can reach conclusions about value and conscience through the analytic method.
Today's scientific world is confused about what is reality.
There are five senses, but you need to employ one more sense to perceive the complete reality of the universe.
Thinkers say that we must conquer reality if we are to advance.
But there is such confusion of what reality is. Religiously and philosophically there is confusion. We have to clarity this confusion by setting the standard.
We need philosophy and religion, but what do 'I' need most of all?
An active conscience.
To determine what is reality, we have to restore our consciences to be true ones. Have people throughout history lived with true conscience?
All men have the common desire to live with true conscience, but how can that be realized?
An important quality in a moral code is filial piety.
We place value on this, but what is it and why should we exercise it?
Filial piety is loyalty to the unchanging value of the family.
A son that practices filial piety will serve his parents and brothers and sisters even if they do not reciprocate.
Our conscience dictates that this is the right thing to do. But if you are not able to recognize the value of conscience, you will not recognize the value of filial piety. You have to have some starting point.
Conscience values your parents' welfare more than your own.
On a larger scale, a patriot follows his conscience by serving his country and caring about its welfare.
There is the common ground that the conscience dictates the benefit of something higher than yourself. The conscience pursues something of higher value not caring only for the self first.
What is a saint or a holy man?
The saint follows the same principle, but he obeys his conscience for the sake of mankind. He recognizes that the subject of all is God. In history, holy men have always been religious leaders.
Like evolutionists, the materialistic communists say that awareness, or consciousness, is merely a by-product of the material world. So, where can we find the moral code in that?
Communism is destructive because it is based on materialism and recognizes consciousness as only a by-product, not something that has value or needs a standard to follow.
Within communism, there is no ideal of a person of treasure.
Since communists do not place value on the spiritual element, life is expendable in their political system. Humans are only viewed as material.
We see throughout history that they freely sacrifice people's lives to attain material.
There is no such thing as an everlasting moral standard in the world of communism.
Which is first, consciousness or the material?
How do we determine that consciousness came first?
As stated in earlier posts as an example, the eye is material whether it is in man or some animal. Would the first eye in existence have known that it would encounter sunlight or dust therefore develop eyelashes and tears itself?
Whoever designed the eye would have understood these phenomena. Anyone who tries to argue that the eye randomly came about into existence, you can show him his error with this short example.
Are the tear ducts to keep the eye clean and moist a random event?
Then it is logical to say that long before the eye came into being there was an universal conscious that designed the eye according to the environment. So, we can say that conscious came before the material world.
I don't deny the process of evolution in development, but I am saying that there is a creative process going on behind it. In the theory of evolution there are sudden occurrences called mutations, in which something new comes from its parent body. But we have to say that there must have been some energy or willpower that authorized that occurrence. Could evolution itself create a new awareness and make a new design? Absolutely not.
Then there must be something that is outside evolution that supplies creative energy.
Development occurred between the highest and lowest stages, but it did not just happen automatically. Each stage was the result of a design and input of additional energy.
Evolutionists do not want to recognize that creative energy. Evolutionists need to acknowledge an universal consciousness that provided the know-how beforehand.
When you talk about the conscience of man, then you have to recognize that there is an universal truth that ties into it. Therefore, they must recognize God who is the first cause.
Does conscience also evolve?
If you do not recognize the unchanging quality of conscience within yourself, then you cannot begin to look at the unchanging and unique characteristics within gems.
If you do not have this quality within yourself, then you have no reason to seek it outside yourself. You appreciate precious things because you have that quality within yourself.
You cannot compare two things unless you have the capacity to appreciate both.
Return for Tomorrow's Post: Mind Wants Principle, Body Wants Addiction
This post was rewritten and derived from the speech, Our Standard
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