Chapter V: The Definitions

by Jesse Potter aka Elkin Vanaeon
 On this ninth day of August in the year of our Lord and Lady 2005 CE

These definitions are necessary for the understanding of this book and particularly useful as reference material. Many of the reference books that I researched provided only very limited information on this material.

 The Definition of Conscience

 Conscience - (Con"science) (?), n. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know

• Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [Obs.] "The sweetest cordial we receive, at last, Is conscience of our virtuous actions past." Denham.
• The faculty, power, or inward principle which decides as to the character of one's own actions, purposes, and affections, warning against and condemning that which is wrong, and approving and prompting to that which is right; the moral faculty passing judgment on one's self; the moral sense. "My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns me for a villain." Shak. "As science means knowledge, conscience etymologically means self-knowledge . . . But the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind as well as a consciousness of our own actions. . . . Conscience is the reason, employed about questions of right and wrong, and accompanied with the sentiments of approbation and condemnation." Whewell.
• The estimate or determination of conscience; conviction or right or duty. "Conscience supposes the existence of some such [i.e., moral] faculty, and properly signifies our consciousness of having acted agreeably or contrary to its directions." Adam Smith.
• Tenderness of feeling; pity. [Obs.] Chaucer.
• Conscience as in Civil Liberties - Individual freedoms that are thought to be essential to the operation of liberal democratic societies. These include freedom of speech, association, religion, conscience, and movement, freedom before the law, and the right to a fair trial. In some political systems (eg the USA) the freedoms are constitutionally guaranteed in a bill of rights, while in others (eg the UK) they form part of the ordinary law.
• Conscience as in Conscientious Objection - A refusal to accept a particular policy, plan, or course of action, because to do so would go against one's conscience. Often invoked by pacifists or others objecting to military service, though the State may not always recognize conscientious objection as a citizen's 'right'.
• Conscience as in Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen - A declaration made by the French National Assembly (27 Aug 1789), proclaiming liberty of conscience, of property, and of the press, and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment. It finally ended the privileged system of the ancien régime.
• Conscience as in Great Awakening - a religious reaction in the 1730s that came to be known as the Great Awakening. Its inspiration came from people who's beliefs led to the proliferation of sects and denominations, which in turn encouraged general acceptance of the principle of religious toleration.

The Definition of 'Evil'

 Evil, as the term is applied in the Human context, is perceived as the immoral actions of someone that results in the suffering of another.

• Human evil is sometimes contrasted or compared to with what is described as an "evil of nature", such as what results from natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunami, or earthquakes.
• The term 'evil' is normally used as a synonym for an extreme form of action perceived as a moral wrong.

One ethical problem discussed in today's courts is whether people rationally choose evil instead of good, as an evil act committed intentionally or unintentionally. It has been argued that people do not choose evil, as such, but rather pursue and act upon personal interests or a people's own cause or interests which they identify at the expense of the interests of other people, of which evil is a by-product of such pursuits.

Those who are judges of society claim it is unreasonable to believe that determinations of what is good cannot be defended without comparisons of "good and evil" in claims of:

• The 'freewill defense', in which the greater good of humanity is determined through having the freedom to choose between good and evil, involves no one, not even God, in preventing them from bringing about good or evil.
• The 'higher-order defense' in which the existence of evil gives humanity opportunities to perform, in response to them, heroic actions of showing courage, patience, and sympathy, opportunities that they would not otherwise display.

Evil', defined in terms of religion and worship, is the measure of perceived impurity of someone or something against the perceived purity and goodness of deity, which is usually determined by those who interpret and teach the worship of deity. Intolerance to differences of beliefs of good or evil, within the context of religious ideologies (seen as extreme differences between beliefs) of various cultures resulted in extreme actions of persecution and death of many peoples and cultures throughout history. The differences of beliefs of evil have been referenced and presented in several theories of ideologies, such as:

• Evil does not really exist except in the mind, seen as an illusion and perceived as the difference between light and darkness.
• Evil is a necessary part of a good whole, seen as the dark areas in a painting that contributes to the perfection of the whole.
• Evil is a privation perceived as an event of inevitability and measured from the loss of what is considered good or proper compared to the difference made by that loss, which could be acknowledged in the outcome. It is the respecting of something that was taken for granted which when deprived of, such as blindness in one-eye, results in the realization of that loss and the respecting of what is left, such as the good sight of the other eye.
• Evil is what detracts from the goodness of the whole, which must be removed, seen as a cancer that must be destroyed so that what is perceived as what is the good of the body will not be further harmed.

Each of these perceptions, though valid, must be viewed altogether in order to judge the true nature of humanity. The judgements of good or evil, within the context of the religious beliefs of people, are determined by people representing and determining religious beliefs, the forming of religions, and the perceived will of the deity they worship. Religious cultures, especially western views of monotheism, see the dominance of deity as being omnipotent, omniscient, and absolute in power and purity, with humanity bound in judgement to be submissive to that deity for the past, present and future wrongs of its actions. Such dominant beliefs of deity and submissive views of humanity provide the means of religious institutions, which interpret the will of deity, to believe they have the right to determine the physical as well as spiritual judgements of humanity. These determinations go beyond the normal scope of right and wrong in the judging of the souls of peoples of societies, manifested in the beliefs of differences between good and evil perceived as:

• Good, as in the rewards of long life and good health until death with the promise of a heavenly existence (death of the body but salvation of the soul).
• Evil, as in the punishments of pain, suffering, and the death of the body and torment of the soul.

Such beliefs also included the reasoning, of the actions of deity, of directing necessary evils towards humanity for the testing of faith and education of people to determine whether they are:

• Judged righteous and pure (good and innocent of guilt), or
• Judged unrighteous and impure (lacking in innocence, guilty or guilty by association).
• The testing of faith, deemed as a justified necessary evil, was seen through acts of reward and punishment directed towards what or who is loved and cherished, such as:
1. Being personally stricken by disease incurred by deity as a test to see if you will hold true to your faith.
2. Having a loved ones become ill or die due to incorrect choices, thus incurring guilt on a person or a people judged not to be favored by deity.
3. The abandonment of protection from harm by deity during times of hardship to people. Justified to prove protection and dependence on deity was necessary and usually reasoned by those chosen to be the interpreters of deity as having been caused by corruption and impurity of the people.

Many various judgmental religious ideologies claim humanity to be imperfect when compared to the perfection of deity. Thus being unable to understand the reasoning of deity in having imposed necessary evils upon them or in the determining what greater judgements are needed before humanity can be declared good or free from evil. One of the more obscure lessons in life incurred by deity, reasoned by theists, is in the need for necessary evils that result in the suffrage of humanity such as, in order for some people to live a good life while others must be allowed to suffer. Within such beliefs, it is considered a privilege to be used by deity for such a useful purpose since those same beliefs also promise the possibility of compensation to those sufferers in an afterlife.

The problem with the reasoning of such religious ideologies is whether a people of free will would want to choose:

• To believe in or worship a deity of dominance and submission or of deity of loving guidance and compassion,
• To believe deity has the right to use or punish people in such a derogatory fashion without choice, or to believe in the natural causes of age, illnesses, and actions of life that affects all living things.
• To accept teachings of the bindings of manifest destiny or to be free in being the creators of there own destiny.

The testing of faith, of necessary evils imposed on humanity and the privileges of being used by deity was reasoned as the means of proving to humanity that it is unable to rule itself unless through divine intervention under the guidance of religious institutions that interpreted the will of deity.

Within the history of our world many religious institutions, when joined with political power, have proven time and again to be intolerant and the cause of many of the evils and suffrages incurred in the name of deity, towards peoples of different beliefs throughout history. Over time societies evolved and recognized the need to establish humane laws and ideologies to protect human rights, which included the religious freedom of different peoples to practice beliefs other than just those of domination and submission. This resulted in the establishing of more ethical and balanced societies, in which some deemed the separation of the powers of church and state as being necessary for a more ethical people.

The Definition of 'Ethics'

Ethics is the branch of philosophy dealing with the concepts and principles of morality, which include theoretical questions of:

• The source and foundation of morality,
• The status and justification of moral rules,
• The relationship between moral and other human objectives,
• The nature of responsibility.

It is the creating and applying of morals and principles as ethics, which is an evolutionary process, that leads to the need of discovering truths of what was deemed right or wrong in the evaluation of correct or incorrect past historical judgements. What is deemed ethically correct is then presented and ideologically applied in today's societies as human rights and universal ethics, which are not applied or accepted by all peoples of the world:

• The cherishing, protection, healing, and restoring of women's and children's rights so that they will no longer be exploited as commodities.
• Care and equality between women, men, and all peoples as to respect with each other and to value their differences, which include the acknowledgment and respect of the value of all peoples of cultural and religious diversity woven in the fabric of life of our world.

The Definition of 'Morality'

Morality can be used either:

• "Descriptively" to refer to a code of conduct that is acceptable or unacceptable by,
1. The individual as a pattern for personal ethics and behavior; such as in activities of finding a mate (dating), eating particular foods (vegetarian or carnivore), or war as in the care of prisoners as well as keeping of treaties.
2. An intimate peer group - such as a family, religious circle, or tribe.
3. An external peer group - such as a business or organization.
• Or "Normatively" to refer to a code of conduct that when given specified conditions would be put forward by all rational persons.

If a person is brought up in a specific society, it is to the degree of how morality is defined within that society as to how that individual and people within that society are to be judged. To take on a "morality" is to refer to a code of conduct that leads to some form of understanding of the principles and ethics of society and how they relate to oneself to that society, relating to the constantly changing conditions of that society. This results in many different forms of moral theories by those who use "morality" as a rational people in the normative sense.

Ethics and Morality go hand in hand with each other. A person or people of a society must take an ethical stance in order to form a moral decision. Whether that decision is right or wrong matters in the outcome as to what injury, lack of injury, or benefit is derived from those actions.

The Definition of Soul, as to what is it?

Some of this definition is from the excerpt of the "Language of the Heart", by Carl H. Claudy, printed in March of 1929. The soul, or spirit, comprehends a language, which the logic of the brain does not understand. The keenest minds have striven without success to make this mystic language plain to reason. Yet when you hear music or poetry, which brings tears to your eyes and grief or joy to your heart, you respond to a language, which is felt but not easily understood or explained. It is not with logic that you love your mother, your child or your wife - it is felt and expressed from the "Something Beyond" of the language of the heart, which is not easily translated by the mind or spoken by the tongue.

It is through such an esoteric language and symbolism that we speak the language of the soul and spirit, one to another, which each of us reads and speaks according to his or her ability to interpret it.

Defining Differences in Various Beliefs of Religion!

The various beliefs of humanity have been portrayed through history as a bewildering variety of religions, cults, sects, denominations, and spiritual movements having been formed through the ages. The world's religions are reflected by the people and defined by the diversity of their geographic locations, social cultures, and language. There are common principles, definitions, or criteria of meaning that identifies "each and all" of the many religions of the world. These are various expressions of Religion and religious beliefs:

• Religion as defined from the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, means the voluntary subjection of oneself to God. It exists in its highest perfection in heaven, where the angels and saints love, praise, and adore God, and live in absolute conformity to His holy will. It does not exist at all in hell, where the subordination of rational creatures to their Creator is one not of free will, but of physical necessity. On earth it is practically coextensive with the human race, though, where it has not been elevated to the supernatural plane through Divine revelation, it labors under serious defects.
• Religion as defined from Black's Law Dictionary - It is the belief of Man's relation to Divinity, to reverence, worship, obedience, and submission to mandates and precepts of supernatural or superior beings. In its broadest sense includes all forms of belief in the existence of superior beings exercising power over human beings by volition, imposing rules of conduct, with future rewards and punishments.
• The "Weltanschauung" definition of Nature and of Religion - Religion is the belief of God, and faith in his moral government out of which springs the idea of a "kingdom of God" as the end of the Divine conduct of history. The Father-God of Christ, is the only one capable of satisfying man's religious or moral aspirations, that therefore man has been able to produce it from his own resources. Even if he were able, this alone would not satisfy the religious necessity. For religion craves not merely for the idea of God, but for personal fellowship and communion with Him, and this can only take place on the ground that God and man are in some way brought together--in other words, on the basis of Divine Revelation or manifestation.
• "The Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion", states on page p. 647: "Religion - from the Latin 'religare' ('to bind fast') - typically the term refers to an institution with a recognized body of communicants who gather together regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality."
• Religious Belief, my own personal and esoteric - Ones inter-personal relationship of self with Divinity which is inclusive of reverence, worship, learning and understanding of order and chaos. Being connected to Deity in order to perceive the full spectrum of all that lives, has lived, and all that has passed beyond. It is the exercising of power over ones own connection to everything and choosing to become more than oneself in the context of all that exists to achieve a higher aspect of oneself closer to Deity. In its broadest sense, religion includes all forms of belief in the existence of deity without absolutes in the forming of values, ethics, and morals to guide oneself through life.

A Religion comes into being when people of similar beliefs join in common worship. "Personal Beliefs" are judged as Conscientious, Religious, or Political in Nature. Whichever the case may be - societies require relative ethical and moral values within that individuals belief system, in order for that individual to actively participate in a beneficial manner within that society. Societies are made up of many people involving many cultures. He or she, as an individual of one culture living within a society of peoples, uses a belief system as a reference in order to help establish ethical and moral values that will benefit the individual within their own culture.

Beliefs of differing peoples are usually in conflict within Society. Individuals believing natural resources should be exploited for profit are contrary to those who believe natural resources should be cherished and protected. This is especially true when societies believe in the right of government to supersede or impede the freedom of choice of personal or religious beliefs of their people.

Whatever the needs or differences that are involved, it is the "Right of the Individual" to choose what he or she accepts as a belief system. However, when a person expresses those beliefs, it is by those beliefs that the individual will be judged by his or her fellow members of society.

Defining Terrorism

In the year 2002 CE, terrorism was openly declared an entity to be warred upon by the United States and other Countries of the World. This book is merely a reminder that people, institutions, and governments of the present as well as the past who have denied others their human rights of religious and civil liberties through the use of physical and or emotional violence are considered terrorists within the definitions of terrorism in today's society.

The definition of terrorism is the proposed act of or actual 'Use of Violence' to induce a state of fear through acts of intimidation, coercion, or threats. This includes all forms of:

• Physical violence as in the actual revoking of human rights, physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping, murder or assassination, rape or beating of another.
• Emotional violence as in threats of intimidation or coercion of revoking of human rights, physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping, murder or assassination, rape or beating of another.

It is the 'Use of Fear' to intimidate, coerce or threaten another person, group, or entity. In order to produce a state of fear that will affect or change the reasoning of normal decision making processes so that abnormal actions will be directed towards an outcome that otherwise would not have been made. The "Use of Fear" to intimidate, coerce or threaten another person, group, or entity within the definition of Terrorism would include the attempt to or the actual change of:

• The outcome of feelings that affect the determination and outcome of like or dislike of a family member, friend, social belief, religious belief, political belief, etc.
• The outcome of political views that affect the determination and outcome of a political decision.
• The outcome of legal views that limit or removes a civil or religious liberty affecting the determination and outcome of a judicial decision.
• The outcome of judicial procedures in a court of law or congressional or military investigation that affect the determination and outcome of a judicial decision.
• The outcome of governmental policies within the natural structure of a government that affect the determination and outcome of a governmental procedure.

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