cardinal sins

I consider two societies equal in all respects except one. In the Cath society the search for truth is a monopoly of an elite which is supposed to teach the truth to the rest of the population; in the Prot society the search for truth is competitive and democratic in the sense that each and every citizen is supposed to search for truth by his own means.

I start with the analysis of the religious dimension in these societies where truth is equated to God. In the Prot society different ways to truth will soon emerge - ultimately, one way for each citizen - and different, competitive truths will be the end result of this process. In the Cath society, by contrast, there is only one truth, that proclaimed by the elite.

People in the Prot society will tend to associate around clusters of truth (sects) each one in competition with all others. Competition has an adversarial component and some religious tensions within the Prot society are to be expected. Not so in the Cath society where everybody shares the same truth and each person tends to look at others as friends or companions, not as competitors or adversaries. It follows that the quality of human relations is better in the Cath society than in the Prot society. The Cath society is a more humane society.

In the Prot society different people, or clusters of them (sects), will soon be claiming that their truth is the good one, to the exclusion of all others. There is, thus, a propensity for religious conflicts, even wars, in the Prot society, a propensity which is not present in the Cath society. The only way to keep peace and avoid conflict in the Prot society is to accept all different truths as being equally good. The result is the relativization of truth (cultural relativism) in the Prot society. In the Cath society, by contrast, absolutization of truth and cultural absolutism will prevail.

In the Prot society each man has his own, unhindered way to God and soon there will be as many ways to God as people in the Prot society. The result is the banalization of God and, ultimately, agnosticism and atheism. By contrast, in the Cath society the elite is placed between God and the common man. The common man does not have direct access to God and it is the duty of the elite to keep God in his pedestal. Thus, banalization of God is very unlikely. The conclusion is that irreligiousity - agnosticism and atheism - is much more likely to occur in the Prot society than in the Cath society.

Since man is made at the image of God, the banalization of God in the Prot society leads directly to the banalization of man and human life. In the Cath society, on the contrary, man will be kept in a pedestal similar to God's, although at a lower level. It follows that the Cath society will value man and human life more than the Prot society. Killing people individually or en masse is more likely in the Prot society than in the Cath society.

The Prot society with its multiple truths tends to produce cultural or social segregation as people sharing the same truth tend to join together in clusters, each cluster having a truth which is different from all others. No such segregation exists in the Cath society where all people share the same truth.

The Prot society is more open and tolerant to new truths than the Cath society. In the Cath society there is no room for new truths - certainly not before they are examined and approved by the elite, and made compatible with the existing truth - for there is only one truth, the established truth. Thus, the Cath society tends to be more conservative than the Prot society.

As the Prot society lives in a climate of permanent social tension between its different clusters of truth, the only way to keep this society together is through ruling by the majority of the set of truths which will prevail, truths which admit of no dissent and must be strictly enforced. These are the democratic laws. The rule of Law is thus exceedingly important in the Prot society. Not so much in the Cath society where there are no similar social tensions because everybody shares the same truth.

It thus follows that the cardinal sin in the Prot society - the sin that puts the Prot society at peril of destruction - is unlawfulness. By contrast, the cardinal sin in the Cath society - the sin that threatens to destroy it - is contestation of established truth, that is, heresy.