M3016
Martinus Answers Readers' Questions
QUESTION: Will the fact that we acknowledge reincarnation have any influence on world morality?
ANSWER: As long as reincarnation has not been accepted by the public at large or the great majority of terrestrial mankind, there cannot possibly come about a totally perfect, humane or just world morality. As long as people do not understand reincarnation, it will be impossible to arrive at an understanding of the true or absolute world view. The modern, materialistic world view is not a real world view. It is merely a series of analyses of the paths and material constitution of planets and galaxies, in other words, a body of knowledge that has not the slightest influence on world morality. And as long as the physical-mental world view is an unknown phenomenon, its structure and laws, and thereby also its laws of morality, will remain unknown. It is precisely this lack of knowledge that today gives rise to such expressions as "there is no justice", "life is a result of chance occurrences", "every man for himself" etc. And such conclusions form the basis of the way people live their lives. They cannot understand that there can be justice in a world in which they can see that some children are born with an illness, in poverty and misery, to unloving parents who actually bring them up to be criminals, while other children are born into a life of wealth and comfort, looked after by loving parents and being able to mix with the highest and most esteemed circles in society. Some children are born with very limited gifts, while others are born with outstanding intellectual abilities and dispositions. One child is born a genius while the next is born mentally disabled. Some beings are slaves and have to slave and work their fingers to the bone for others, who can then live a life of luxury as the result of these beings' work. Some beings die from extravagance and laziness, while others die of starvation and over-exertion. Some children die immediately after being born, and others live to be a hundred years old. Some children are born with an expansive and friendly psychological makeup, and others are born with a psychological makeup than can only find expression as a bandit or a gangster. What justice is there in a world in which all this is apparently totally without meaning, and the riches of life are so unequally divided?
Ecclesiastical Christianity's attempt to remedy this situation with religious dogmas or accepted doctrines, which describe the world view as an almighty Godhead that is the creator and ruler of all living beings, has not been able to refer to phenomena that make the world view into a culmination of justice and love. In its helplessness it has had to capitulate with the words: "The ways of God are unknowable". The thing that has brought ecclesiastical Christianity to this state of intellectual capitulation or barrenness, which has resulted in people abandoning Christianity, is its teaching about a Godhead that is stated as being almighty, all-loving and all-knowing, but that nevertheless allows the vast majority of its created beings to end up in an eternal hell, that is to say in a pain and agony that they will never in all eternity be freed from. This appalling pain is stated as being a punishment for their offences and small mistakes that they have committed in one single physical, terrestrial life. How can an eternal, never-ending punishment reasonably relate to a temporal offence? And how can created beings be punished for their own imperfection? They have not created themselves, but are products of a creator. Should not this creator take responsibility himself? If this creator is almighty why does he create beings who he knows in advance, due to the fact that he is all-knowing, that they will end up in hell? If he does not create his beings perfectly he is not almighty. And if he does not know in advance that they will end up in hell he is not all-knowing, and if he knows in advance that they will end up in hell but has no wish to free them from this great torment, in fact even going so far as to send the majority of his created beings there, he is not all-loving. Just think, if such a godhead were to be given a psychological examination, what would be the diagnosis? A creative being, of which the greatest part of his production is the creation of living beings with a mental structure that mercilessly condemns them to a never-ending life in a culmination of pain and torment – and in which state they eternally have to scream in vain in their death agony to their insensitive and merciless creator, whose qualities of being almighty and all-knowing could have prevented this whole demonic scenario and thereby have created a bright, sunny existence for everyone – cannot have even the slightest spark of love in him. Since the beings in hell can never in all eternity be freed from their torment, their stay there will be completely without any benefit or useful purpose for the beings themselves. But since the almighty Godhead nevertheless holds these beings firmly in eternal suffering, it can therefore only be because it is a pleasure for him. But a being that finds pleasure in seeing living beings helplessly held in frightful agony can only be abnormal. His diagnosis can only be expressed in the single word: "sadism".
It is this pure devil that is hidden in the outdated terminology of the dogmas, this hundred percent heathendom in the religious traditions that is causing people to abandon ecclesiastical Christianity, as they gradually begin to think for themselves. They understand that what is needed is a loving being or a Christ in flesh and blood in order to cause this sadistic image of a world ruler to fade, crumble and disintegrate. This image of a sick godhead cannot possibly inspire the advanced investigator and give him any reassurance of justice and thereby any fundamental basis for the creation of a higher morality.
As the other great world religions also contain far-reaching heathen dogmas or ideas, which cannot stand up to a truly intellectual scrutiny, beings will abandon also these religions as their intellectual abilities begin to show themselves. Paradise-like heavens with soulless valkyries or the anxiety of becoming a crocodile, a snake, an octopus or some such creature if one does not fulfil the demands of the religion will also disappear like dark shadows in the light of intellectuality. And human beings will be forced to look for new mental foundations on which to base their morality.
Since modern, materialistic science can, as already mentioned, offer human beings only analyses of material or matter, it cannot possibly solve the mystery of life. Life does not consist merely of material or matter, but also of the life that directs and proclaims itself through the material or matter. It is therefore not possible for this science to form the basis of morality. Spiritual or mental darkness, godlessness or the denial of the existence of a providence rule everyday life in the domain of materialistic science. The possession of the largest army and fleet or forces with the greatest capacity to kill, murder and destroy is therefore considered to be the only effective safety measure or the best means of protection. The result is that everything here becomes more a question of might rather than a question of right. And terrestrial human beings, who are so highly gifted in materialistic knowledge and capability, are here forced to remain at the animal stage and live their lives in accordance with the law of the jungle, that is to say, the right of the strongest. But as human beings are different than animals in that they are ethical beings, which means that they are intended to live in accordance with the principle "right before might", they cannot live in accordance with the law of the jungle, where "might comes before right", without undermining their true, human experience of life, which is a state of permanent peace, happiness and joy based on the understanding of, and love for, all and everything. Jungle morality can only give terrestrial human beings an animal experience of life, which is the same as the state of being permanently on guard against feared evils, sorrows and sufferings, which in the case of terrestrial human beings are strengthened to the degree that these beings have strengthened their animal existence with artificial weapons of defence and attack. And this strengthened practising of the law of the jungle is today the world morality. This determines the relationship between countries and between people. It goes without saying that life therefore to a corresponding degree is bound to be animal instead of human, is bound to be a life at war instead of at peace.
After this capitulation in religion and materialism, spiritual science – which is now beginning to show itself, with its cosmic analyses of the living something behind matter or material and thereby of the true physical-mental world view – will be the only road towards world peace that is now exposed and navigable. Here reincarnation or the individual's eternal existence is expounded on the basis of unshakable logic. As a result of your knowledge of this eternal existence, you will see that you are the primary originator, creator and releaser of your own fate, and that all one's fellow beings and surroundings can never in any situation whatsoever be the cause of where we are born, who we have as parents, which environment and which circumstances we end up belonging to, which sorrows and sufferings or other forms of unpleasantness we end up experiencing. These beings and surroundings will never be able to be anything other than the means and tools through which we, with our own being, consciously or unconsciously, release and form our own experience of life, which is the same as our fate. As our fate can be nothing other than the effects of causes that we ourselves have released, partly in this present life and partly in earlier lives on Earth, there is rightfully no one to be angry with, no one to blame for this or that unpleasantness or this or that unfortunate occurrence in our fate. We see that all forms of unpleasantness are signs of our own imperfectness in the art of living and behaving, and we can therefore learn from every unpleasantness or every experience. Spiritual science's analyses of reincarnation and its world view therefore totally removes the great superstition that anyone can cause injustice and that anyone can suffer injustice. It removes every single justification for feeling oneself to be a victim and shows that every form of hatred, anger, envy or, in short, every form of lack of love is the still imperfect or cosmically blind terrestrial human being "missing his step" and "stumbling". As missing one's step and stumbling enrich us with experience, experience leads us to knowledge of life, and knowledge of life leads us to cosmic clear-sightedness or cosmic initiation, which forms the basis of the truly humane human being or the being in God's image, every example of missing one's step and stumbling is therefore useful and unavoidable in the divine world plan, thereby revealing as a fact the eternal words: "Everything is very good". Once the cosmic analyses of reincarnation become self-evident and acknowledged in an awake, day-conscious way in the majority of terrestrial mankind, love will drive out the law of the jungle from the current morality. Harmony and peace, art and science, beauty and joy will be the ruling, shining connecting link between all the human beings, nations, races and individuals of the world.
Published for the first time in the Danish edition of Kosmos no. 10, 1950. First published in a translation by Mary McGovern in the English edition of Kosmos no. 1, 1985. Retranslated by Andrew Brown, 2013, for English Kosmos 4, 2013. Article ID: M3016. Published in the English edition of Kosmos no. 1, 2024.
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