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When the gods die

I don't know what consciousness is, or what self-consciousness is.
It is not evident that we have always been self-conscious. 
Some scholars think it was hard work for human beings
to learn to differentiate themselves from the herd, or school;
that individual responsibility is a hard-gained attribute. 

We give ourselves easily to authority:  parents, kings, community,
race, religion, easily accept the wisdom of the pack, or leader. 
We are quick to cite authority.  We want something outside
ourselves to lean on, to blame, to decide the hard choices. 

In the military, a good part of the training is to bring recruits
to the point where they will not think for themselves,
but will react, first, to orders, for the good of the whole group.
If the Lieutenant says, "Charge!", you charge.  Hesitating,
debating the issue for yourself, will result in disaster. 

Religions--western religions, at least--are built around the belief
that what is good and true is determined outside oneself;
that we are only to hear and to recognize what is absolute.
"You shall not kill, lie, steal, commit adultery, or pay attention
to any other gods."  We are other-directed in our morality. 

All of that is in direct conflict with what we are beginning to
recognize:  that first we react to something, or think something
is good, or bad, and then we construct our reasons; our ethics.

Try it!  Suppose you find it utterly abhorrent to brutalize
children!  It is impossible to accept any ethical argument
that says that beating kids to a pulp is O.K.  You cannot do it.
Suppose you think abortion is murder!  No logical argument
will make it acceptable.  It is how you feel; how you react.

First we react, morally.  Then we construct logical arguments
to support what causes us pleasure or gives us pain. 

We have come to shift the heart of morality from outside
authority to something inherent, or inside, ourselves. 
We become genuinely moral in doing so.  Simply obeying
is almost without virtue.  It might make for a good army,
but it makes for a vacant moral responsibility. 

The kings and gods don't know best.  Maybe we don't, either,
but there is no way to avoid responsibility, and still be moral.

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