First principles:
I have been reading a little on the history of the samurai.  In the course I ran across a reference to an ancient Chinese commentator on Confucius.  (Mark Ravina The Last Samurai John Wiley and Sons Hoboken 2004 page 36)  The ancient writer was Zhu Xi.  He took the position that the physical universe and the moral universe obey identical laws and that they needed to be understood together.  Thus moral teachings had to be reconciled with observation of the real word.  Well done, brother Xi.

I think I can go him one better.  The physical world, the moral world and the spiritual world have one principle law in common.  For children in the long run you must marry the right relative.

Let’s see.  I have often pointed out that among animals population growth rate declines with population size. So the law holds there.  See the Orlando posting for the reference.  That is the physical world.

I wasn’t there for the decline of Rome or Greece, but among those who were there are reports of what might be called moral degeneracy.  At least they seemed to have thought so.  Women and children became unimportant.  Ostentatious consumption became very important.  There is the moral world.

Confucius, to the best of my knowledge, had little interest in things spiritual, although he lived at a time of worldwide interest in such things.  Perhaps as a scientist you have little interest, but bear with me. 

Many years ago in an evening meeting of a church youth group my older brother was presented with the question, “How can it be that God extends infinitely into the past?” 

He didn’t even blink.  He held a closed hymnal and pointed to a place on the binding.  He said, “Let’s say we are here.  You are living here now.  You believe that you will live one way or another forever.”  He ran his finger along the binding.  There was general understanding.  “It just means that,” replacing his finger to the original spot, “God goes infinitely in the other direction.”  And he ran his finger the other way along the binding.  There was again a sense that everyone understood him.

The crucial moment, of course, is where the finger initially was placed.  A soul came into being.  That is most remarkable.  It can only happen if people, by and large, marry relatives.  So all three tie in together.

It matters not how much of a skeptic you might be.  Tell me you don’t believe a baby has a soul.  I shall still assert, “If there is no baby there will be no soul.”  If you can wiggle out of that one, by all means give me your logic. 

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