History shows that violence and bloodshed on the basis of religious beliefs will only lead to casualties and ravages. Shedding one’s blood for a particular ideology will foment trouble in a community rather than ending the issue. Crusading against one’s religious convictions has shown its ugliest face throughout the history. Historical bloodbath over religious beliefs left heavy casualties behind without a positive change. No doubt, the more a conflict continues the more it will lead to destructions.
It is believed that man has estranged from himself. He does not experience himself as the center of his world, as the creator of his own acts – but his acts and their consequences have become his masters, whom he obeys, or whom he may even worship.
The alienated person is out of touch with human dignity and moral standards.
“Man is alienated from other men. When man confronts himself he also confronts other men. What is true of man’s relationship to his work, to the product of his work and to himself, is also true of his relationship to other men. . . . Each man is alienated from others . . . each of the others is likewise alienated from human life.”
The golden rule is best interpreted as saying: “Treat others only as you consent to being treated in the same situation.” To apply it, you’d imagine yourself on the receiving end of the action in the exact place of the other person. If you act in a given way toward another, and yet are unwilling to be treated that way in the same circumstances, then you violate the rule.
To apply the golden rule adequately, we need knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect our actions have on the lives of others. And we need to be able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in the other person’s place on the receiving end of the action. With knowledge, imagination, and the golden rule, we can progress far in our moral thinking.
The golden rule is best seen as a consistency principle. It doesn’t replace regular moral norms. It isn’t an infallible guide on which actions are right or wrong; it doesn’t give all the answers. It only prescribes consistency – which we not have our actions be out of harmony with our desires. It tests our moral coherence.
If we violate the golden rule, then we’re violating the spirit of fairness and concern that lie at the heart of morality.
Morality is not something innate such as parental loves or emotional acts. When you feel hungry you eat something or you just love your friends emotionally – they are not called moral acts. If you feel sympathy and help a criminal escape from the law or police, you have done even immoral act. Morality originates in your reason and conscience. You follow the reasonable orders of your wisdom, which is not colored by your sensation, it is called morality. But it should be noted that if you help someone as a reaction to his support or expecting something in favor, it is not called a moral act. Rather morality is a selfless act that you do for others without any expectations – which draws people’s praise.
In truth, all human beings have real dignity and rights simply because they are persons-entities with a natural capacity for thought and free choice. All human beings have this capacity, so all human beings are persons. Each human being therefore deserves to be treated by all other human beings with respect and consideration.
Currently, the social life lack morality and humanity. People’s rights and dignity are violated to a large extent. Human dignity has also come under assault in the area of procreation. In particular, we now see children “produced” in a laboratory in order to help infertile couples achieve pregnancy. Since human beings are created by God, they have an equal dignity from the moment of conception. Every human relationship is one of equality between persons.
However, with the use of artificial fertilization, the relationship between parent and child does not truly achieve a communion of persons but is a relationship of producer to product. In essence this is “equivalent to reducing [the child] to an object of scientific technology.” This is a direct assault on the dignity of the child.
It is rightly stated in the preamble of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people … it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”.
Therefore, “it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations”.
The harsh ideologies, which lack moral standards and justify spilling the blood of mankind, must be fought against collectively. Men are born with rights to life, liberty and property, and no one is supposed to violate these rights but on the basis of law in certain conditions. We have to exercise the “golden rule” in our collective life and treat others with due respect regardless of their race, color and creed.