Second in a Series >>>>> Extended Thoughts from "A Succinct Summary of the Theology of Gary Marvin Davison"

Humanity is an infant in time.  

Very few human beings understand either their own place in Eternity or the psychological factors that determine the course of their lives.  Given the enormous stretch of time that transpired after the birth of the universe and the formation of Earth prior to the evolution of humanity, humankind’s search for meaning is still in a nascent stage. 

 

Until the very recent development of Enlightenment thought, humankind mostly sought answers to Existence in religious myths induced by perception of natural events and supposition as to how those events came to be in Creation.  The insights of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and then Einstein challenged the literal truth of Creation myths and introduced scientific discovery as a better source of explanation for natural phenomena and reasons for human behavior.

 

In the course of the 20^th century two great psychologists worked their way through the confused morass of nascent social science to establish the foundations of human behavior:

 

Sigmund Freud found that much of human behavior may be explained in mostly unremembered but formative events, including especially those events that shaped the person in infancy, but also later events recorded in the unconscious or in the even more recondite subconscious.  As the individual moves through life, she or he acts first to satisfy basic human needs and impulses of the Id, then to situate the Ego safely in the world, with the presence of a Superego of varying morality largely derived from the values learned from one’s parents.

 

B. F. Skinner, while utilizing very different terminology and gathering information with much more rigorous scientific techniques than were employed by Freud, would actually find much of value in Freud’s notions of determinative experiences in infancy and youth.  Further, Skinner’s concept of primary reinforcers resonates with Freud’s conception of the id.  But Skinner also placed extreme importance on secondary reinforcers (money, physical sensation, aversive and pleasant experience) that determine behavior throughout life beyond infancy and youth, combining with those early life experiences to produce the behavior and observed personality of the person at any given time in life.

 

Taking early and ongoing experience to together, the human being behaves as she or he does as a result of positive reinforcers (rewards), punishments (aversive experiences), and negative reinforcers (the withdrawal of punishment as a reward for altered behavior) that operate on the human organism immediately, in the context of past experience.

 

Humanity is still working through the insights of the Enlightenment.  The impact of scientific discoveries and the explanatory power of those discoveries turned many people away from religion.  Some religious people developed theologies compatible with science, transforming religious myth into metaphor and acting upon the best in the ethnical systems of the major traditions.  Others clung to the religions of the past.

 

Whichever response to the Enlightenment taken, most people have not been able to handle the truth that behavior is not the result of free will but rather determined by operant conditioning as described by Skinner.

 

My own Buddho-Daoist Christian theology incorporates the insights into Existence and exalted moral codes from the pertinent three belief systems into a philosophy guided by Rationality.  Religious Truth is metaphorical and sensed, having much in common with art and nature.  I am consciously influenced by religion as thus conceptualized and stand in awe of Existence and the Great Gift bestowed upon me by Life;  any behavior of mine, though, including those behaviors influenced by religion, I evaluate via rational cognitive processes, with a clear understanding that those cognitive processes operate in a context governed by the principles of operant conditioning. 

 

Thus, I do not have free will, but by building a strong information base, I can use abundant knowledge to make better decisions, with decision-making ability distinguished from free will:  Decisions occur not as the result of volition, but rather as the result of human intelligence utilized to understand the environmental context that determines behavior, so as to realize the political, social, and cultural environment most likely to produce the best possible Life for humanity.

 

Joy is felt in the moment as elation under given circumstances and in the context of accumulated personal experience.

 

Happiness is enduring satisfaction with the course of one’s life.

 

Joy is to be evaluated for consistency with exalted ethical conduct and regarded with great gratitude as Divine Gift.   

 

Happiness when achieved will accompany the person all through life.

 

The Happy person will embrace the wonder of religion, nature, and art while acting according to the principles of scientific and rational thought, knowing that the activation of intelligence upon a strong information base so as to make the best decisions possible under the principles of operant conditioning provides a basis for optimism that by establishing the proper environment the best Life for all people awaits the future of humanity.