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Lesson VIII: Dharma.383
The followers of the Utilitarian school of ethics differ one from the other
in their explanations of the cause and history of ethics and rules of human
conduct, some thinking that it arose from God speaking through man’s
reason, and others taking the more material view that ethics, laws, morals,
and rules of conduct are the product of the evolution of the race—the result
of accumulated experiences, the trying of this and of that until a fair average
has been obtained. Of course to the latter class, morals and rules of conduct
are purely matters of the reason of Man, having nothing to do with Divine
Law, or Spiritual Knowledge. Herbert Spencer, the great English scientist, is
perhaps the best exponent of this last named school, his work, “The Data of
Ethics,” being a masterpiece of reasoning along these lines.
Dharma takes cognizance of each and all of these three schools of ethics,
seeing that each has a bit of truth in it, and that all, combined, and welded
with the cement of the occult teachings, make a mighty whole. We will show
how these apparently conflicting systems may be reconciled. But before
doing so it may be better to take another look at the three systems above
mentioned, making an analysis of the objections to each as a complete
theory, so that we may see the weakness of any one theory taken by itself as
well as the strength of the three when combined and joined together with
the teachings of Dharma. Let us take them up in the order given above.
(1) The Theory of Revelation. The principal objection urged against this
theory, by the advocates of the other theories, is that there is not sufficient
proof of the truth of the revelation. Priests always have claimed to be the
mouthpieces of the Almighty, and the revelations have come through these
priests in all ages. The advocates of the utilitarian theory of ethics claim
that these so-called revelations (when the rule of conduct given out was
really for the good of the people, rather than for the benefit of the priests)
were really the result of the superior reasoning of the prophet, who, being
head and shoulders above his people, could see what was best for their
needs, and accordingly compiled such rules of conduct into more or less
complete codes, stating that they had been given direct by God through