Editorial December 8, 1986 Issue

Understanding universal good—a rule for peace

William E. Moody

Surely no war was ever fought, no act of violence was ever perpetrated, when both parties understood the true nature of man as God's spiritual reflection. Rather, in every instance of war, in every act of violence that has ever been committed, it has been a limited, material concept of man that was accepted as real and then drawn out in a scenario of aggression.

It is believed by many, for example, that man developed from a common heritage with certain predatory animals. It is believed that man has strongly ingrained genetic traits that have given him sharp territorial instincts, dominance through aggression, survival through physical strength and superior intellect. It is believed that many primitive instincts, even when held in control by the "civilized" man, lie just beneath the surface waiting to find an outlet, perhaps through organized warfare or through spontaneous individual acts of violence.

This view argues that man is what he is because of what he sprang from; and that what he sprang from was inherently aggressive, violent, and animalistic. The biological instinct of the physical organism would allow only for the survival of the fittest.

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