by Edwin C. Bukowski Generally, I believe that there is little purpose to checking the newscasts or the papers. Every time, the reports are identical, with just the specifics being modified; it’s forever about discord and controversy. It’s in the news, it’s in our history books, it’s in our films, and the dominant theme seems to be religion. Faiths fighting faiths, creeds against creeds, holy wars waged against holy wars. Consider it: What might possibly be holy about war? In these controversies, what’s at the nucleus? Perhaps the subject at the heart of it all is moral principles, but what are those? To put it in simple words, it’s our skill to discriminate the just from the unjust. It’s plausible that all beliefs see eye to eye on this, but why do they tend to vary on plenty of different subjects? Is it that religions in themselves are inherently wrong? It is highly unlikely, because then you have people who are moral and don’t belong to any particular religion. Is people’s aggression, then, related to theology or our moral values? Ponder this: if it weren’t for the church, would ethics still exist? I believe these themes reveal a more deep-seated concern: what folks imagine as just or unjust. If I think it’s okay to purloin bread to feed my family, but you think it’s evil no matter what, we have a bit of a predicament. Soon, we will be arguing over whose opinion is more formidable, and in this culture, the most formidable individual comes first Nxivm – Executive Success Programs. Who ultimately decides what is right and what is wrong? Obviously there is no universal authority on this, as far as humans are concerned; so what can we do? It appears to live and work together, which is our species’ infinite challenge, we need to find a middle ground, instead of looking at how we disagree. Luckily, many groups in our civilization are here to do precisely that. The Unitarian Church, for one, is a union of varying beliefs that attempts to hold up fundamental moral values. Their aim comes from the best of intentions; on the other hand, it excludes folks who don’t think they answer to a higher power. There are associations that handle this issue by supporting a moral code that is not based on religion in any way. An example of this is NXIVM, an organization established by scientist Keith Raniere. NXIVM’s goal is to be a representation of the righteous society of mankind. Tactics like these assist in crossing the divide connecting where we are as a society and where we desire to be. In whatever way we opt to tackle the issues, I believe that more groups like these are essential to have in our civilization Nancy Salzman. However we deal with the state of affairs, we simply must find a solution to the problem and learn to live together in peace.