The Sacred

Does the sacred exist? Are there things worth fighting for? The answer seems to be yes, but what are those things? How do we decide what to hold on to and what to let go?

The Olympic protests are an example of people defending what they feel is sacred. As did the people of January 6. And the George Floyd protesters. And Occupy Wall Street. And the civil rights movement. And becoming a nation. The list goes on.

Sacred is defined as connected to God. And the term God is tricky to define as it can conjure up images of Zeus and George Washington (inside joke). For now, let's say God is the embodiment of goodness itself. So when goodness being threatened, what should one do?

First, I think we need to know if goodness is subjective or objective. For those who subscribe to the idea of transcendent morality, they would say goodness is objective, regardless of personal opinion. For those who say it's subjective, morality is something defined by the collective and can be shaped as they see fit.

The problem I see with objective morality is epistemology. For whatever reason, it appears difficult to nail down exactly what those morals are. In the 21st century, we can say that slavery is wrong. If it's objectively wrong and wrongness is the absence of goodness and God is goodness and people said God spoke to them, why was slavery perpetrated by those people? Were they willfully disobedient or did they not know it was wrong?

And with the view that morals are subjective, which morals should we follow as a collective? How do we decide which subjective value ought to be used by the group? Majority rule? Strongest wins? We share an objective world space, so someone has to make the decision.

Here's the problem. We share a world and have competing ideas of what's ideal. We coexist only to the extent of our shared values. And what are those shared values? Peace and respect? What if a person feels the situation is not worthy of respect? Should they just abandon their conviction? And we're back to the original question.

What is the goal of standing up for the sacred? Is it for the personal pride in saying one stands with goodness? Or is it to further the reach of goodness into the world? That's for each individual to decide. If your goal is to stand with goodness, by all means, do what you feel brings the greatest glory. But if your goal is to spread goodness across the world, you may want to look for ways to win people over to your side.

Anger is a divisive emotion. It sets up walls. It's also a signal that something is wrong. Once the anger has subsided, begin the work of empathy. Help people understand why you feel your definition of goodness is the correct one. Describe the merits of your view. Seek to understand why they don't agree, look for common ground and try to build from there. This is how we grow the sacred.