Science Forums 2

[nutronjon]

I googled slavery caused bad morals, and found a discussion of how not having to work, brings out the worse in us. I am not saying this is true. A man took a Native American elder to the top of a mountain and proudly waved his arm over the huge city that consumed nature in a man made world of black top and concrete, and asked the elder, "what did your people do before this". The elder replied, "We sang a lot". Not all ancient people lived in fear and not all spiritual consciousness is the product of fear. Many felt sure the Great Creator or Mother, cared for them and provided all they needed. They sang songs of appreciation for the good lives they had. In contrast is Protestantism, and the work ethic, based on a notion of sin, our evilness, and a jealous, revengeful, and punishing God.

The north was settled by Protestants with a strong work ethic and belief that we are born in sin. Hard work is a means of salvation. From this point of view, idleness is the devils tool and slavery left men idle. However, there is a different take on the bible.

God himself, told the Hebrews they could never be slaves because of their special relationship with him, but they could own slaves who were passed down from one generation to the next. Also God blessed Solomon with slaves. So God himself is okay with his favored people owning slaves, and even will bless them with slaves when they are pleasing to him.

While Martin Luther began the Protestant movement with its work ethic, but he also firmly believed God determined our destiny and that some were born to be masters and others were born to be servants. So this same religion that held we are born in sin and we must save our souls through work, also produced a branch that separated humans between slaves and masters. As a pharaoh was a representative of God on earth and could order people be whipped, so too, the Christian Southern was a man of God born to rule, and be served.

Most US citizens were illiterate, or studied only the bible. Literate people at the time, were literate in Greek and Roman classics. The Quakers (Pennsylvanian) as a group, had more literate people than other religious groups, and they were the strongest in promoting equality and ending slavery.

What the bible tells us of our nature and relationships with God and the rest of humanity, depends on our education and point of view when we come to the bible. Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, comes with literacy in Greek and Roman classics, and therefore, he is giving us an ideal about who we are and our relationship with God and others, that is not found in the bible, without this literacy. The God of democracy is not the God of Abraham, but the God of reason. The condition of man is not sin, but ignorance. There are reasons for him being good or evil, not supernatural forces of sin, God's curse or demons. Through discovery of this reasoning (scientific point of view) we can govern ourselves, rather than be subjects to those who were ordained by God to rule over us. It is not a God who gives us commandments, but our ability to learn and reason that gives us knowledge of Nature's Laws and Nature' s God.

Your conflict is a religious conflict, enhanced by region and environment. Lincoln came from the frontier where his family lived by the sweat of their brow, not slave labor, and he was a self educated man who got himself through college to become a man of law. Big religious, experience, education difference.