Code of the Braggin' Apes

Not too long ago a friend and I were discussin' religion. It's never much of a discussion with him though, he's very set in his views and wants to beleive what he believes. That's his right. If I want to believe what I believe I gotta live in a way that allows others to do the same.





In the course of him quoting The Bible, he asked me if I believed in evolution. He wanted to know if I believed that mankind had evolved from monkeys. Everybody gets their panties in a bunch over that question 'cause people don't wanna be thought of as monkeys.





My answer to the question was that it didn't matter one way or the other. Neither has any particular bearin' on me or what I choose to do with my life.





I asked him, "Would bein' created by God make him a better person?"





He said, "No, it's my own actions that determine whether or not I am a good person."





I asked him, "Would bein' descended from a monkey make him any worse of a person, would bein' related to a monkey diminish his existence in any way?"





He said, "Yes."





I asked him why, and the most logical thing he could come up with was that it would take away from God. That strikes me as irrelevant to the question, seein' as how the question kinda asks you to put yourself in a world where God doesn't exist. When God doesn't exist you can't really take much from him.



I've heard it said before that man is only an animal with a superiority complex. That man believes itself to be so intelligent, so much better than other creatures that it deveops a code of conduct and morality that must be followed. It's been said that there is no real authority behind any moral code, particularly when so many people disobey it or drop it at the first sign of trouble.



Perhaps we are animals. Perhaps we're all descended from monkeys. Maybe we come from the nastiest glob of puss ever to squish its way across the planet. Maybe God is a made up inventon of mankind. Maybe our morals mean nothing to the fish, or the ants, or the stars. Maybe people do often do desperate things in desperate times. Should that have any bearin' on what the rest of us should do? Should we let all that mean that we have no moral code to uphold?



I don't think so. Things have no value of any kind 'til people decide they're worth sumthin'. A moral code, whether The Bible or Bushido, only has value if people abide by it or respect it. A code that people don't stick to can't gain any momentum or strength. But when someone has a philosophy and they stick to it, never bendin' or yieldin' in any of their values, or at least as few as possible, it can be respected. A code like that can be upheld by the people that follow it.

Even in a world without a god or any moral code before you, if you created a code and lived by it and upheld it with every step you took and every action you made, it would have a real value to at least you. It doesn't have to mean anything to anyone but you. Even if it's you alone that chooses to follow that path gives it will gain strength. God does not have to stand behind you. A discouragin' fact like you comin' from a monkey, or a family of thieves, or a drunk could not tarnish this path unless you let it.

No matter your history, whether you were a begger, prostitute, drug addict, molested, or just a regular joe, any moral code should be designed to make you a better person through habit and a method of thinkin'. Now of course, people are not perfect, we will never be perfect, and as such creatures of limited power we're gonna screw up. These slips don't need condemnation, they need understandin'. People that make mistakes just need to be shown a better way to make decisions or live. People that throw away their codes in the face of danger, times of war, or desperate situations need strength to hold on to these codes and forgiveness for abadonin' them. Killin' for killin' ain't never brought anybody back but makin your peace with the people that are still around might let you live a happier life.

Mankind may be just a braggin' ape but if we deliver on our braggin' then we have not just created a code of conduct but a self-fulfilling prophecy. We give ourselves the reasons we need to be righteous and moral. These codes may differ from region to region but should still be respected.

Christians are one group that are often disrespected. In a way it may be their own fault for lackin' a knowledge in their own philosophy. There are those that are well versed and could make anyone doubt their own philosophies but there are others that say simply "Because God said so." "Because God said so" has never been a satisfactory answer to me. There's no real logic to it. We should be moral for the good it creates in the universe not just for ourselves but for all. Good is, as I understand it, derived from the word god. God is good and good is god. In a sense, people don't really do good things because God said so, people do good things and then good exists in the universe, people create a sort of "god".