Philemon, Slavery and Cohesion Within the Tribe
Kevin R. Henke
October 16, 2022
In Henke (2022b), I stated:
“No gods, angels, demons or a Bible are also needed to figure out how people should try to function in our environments. We should develop rules (morality) through reason and not Biblical dogma so that we can live peacefully with each other and our environment.”
Lundahl (2022j) then replies to my statements:
“The morality is here said to be rooted in reason. Now, the question is not whether an agency external to our reason is needed to enlighten it - it may be the case, and as Christians, both Lewis and I believe after the fall each has some kind of need of that. The questions are rather:
· where do universally valid rules of reason come from?
· does reason deal with any moral rules prior to its own developing of moral rules?
The point of chapters 3 and (I think) 4 is, the laws of chemistry and electronics and physics and the constraints of evolution do not put us into the reach of discovering what is universally valid. For our reason to do this, we need to be more than that. The sentence ‘[o]ur brains, thoughts and surroundings are all ultimately controlled by the laws of chemistry and physics,’ needs to be false, at least if implying ‘and nothing else.’”
In Henke (2022ay), I answered Mr. Lundahl’s question: “Where do universally valid rules of reason come from”:
“The “universally valid rules of reason” that Lundahl (2022j) references are solely human discoveries. There’s no need for anything beyond human reason (Dennett 2006). The rules are “universal” because they happen to work in a variety of circumstances from generation to generation. In ancient times, humans learned to develop morals so that members of the tribe could get along with each other. Otherwise, the tribe would fall apart. People needed to cooperate with each other to survive. They also learned how to make spears, avoid the berries that were poisonous, develop strategies for hunting, etc. Both of their technological and socialization (moral) skills came from reasoning and they passed that knowledge onto their children. Their children added to the knowledge and passed that onto their children, etc. In other words, ancient people discovered morality in the same way that they discovered how to make a spear – through reason and trial and error.
In more modern times, we discovered that slavery was not a good idea from rational debate and empathy for our fellow human beings, and certainly not from prayer and the Bible (Avalos 2011). We also learned that it’s not a good idea to dump toxins into the atmosphere and oceans. Through physics, chemistry and biology, we learned that pollution may not just “go away.” Each generation learns valuable and often painful lessons through reason, trail and error, and debate, and we try to pass that wisdom and knowledge unto the next generation along with our positive technological advances. There’s no evidence that any of our advances in reasoning and technology came from God or something ‘beyond Nature.’” [my emphasis in bold and bold-italics]
Lundahl (2022s) then replies to my bolded section:
“We most certainly did use the Bible (notably the Epistle to Philemon) and what you refer to as rational debate most certainly also did use what's at stake here : appeals to universally valid moral principles.”
Avalos (2011) overwhelming shows that numerous Bible verses justify slavery and biblical slavery was barbaric. Exodus 21:21 is a prime example of the barbarism of biblical slavery. Avalos (2011, pp. 127-135) also shows that Philemon was too ambiguous for either side in the 19th century debate on slavery. If the New Testament was really moral, why didn’t it prohibit Christians from buying, owning or selling slaves, just as it prohibited Christians from participating in popular pagan religions or fornication? Clearly, through painful lessons and not the Bible, we learned that slavery was immoral. People had to discover for themselves that slavery was a universal evil.
Lundahl (2022s) continues:
When it comes to "cohesion within the tribe" (your proposed origin of morals) that very obviously would have spoken in favour of all the traditions (even the most recent and worst ones) of the tribes of slave owners.”
Although I mentioned that morality started out in ancient times as a method of bringing cohesion within a tribe (see my italicized and bolded sentence above), that’s not entirely true anymore among civilized societies. In modern times, civilized societies use valid investigations, rationality, empathy for our fellow humans, and debate to determine moral truths and maximize societal harmony, and not the words of “prophets” or simply what the leaders of the tribe demand to keep their power.
By the way, slavery ultimately did not promote “cohesion within the tribe.” Because slavery is unjust, it eventually brought conflict between slaves and abolitionists on one side and slave traders and masters on the other. Slavery was a major cause of the most bloody war in US history, our Civil War (1861-1865). Slavery was a basis of the racial strife that still continues in the USA. Slavery is irrational and it definitely shows no empathy towards the slave.
References:
Avalos, H. 2011. Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship: Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield, UK, 331pp.
Dennett, D.C. 2006. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon: Viking Penguin: London, UK, 448pp.