3. Humans And The Society

Everyone gets their oan consequences, we all think so, and today’s laws protect that. All of us believe that the feudal kings’ command to “kill three generations of a family” is too antiquated and full of injustice. Crime is a personal matter.

Thinking carefully, are we right?

1. INDIVIDUAL PERSON, SOCIAL PERSON:

We distinguish between individual and social persons in order to understand human phenomena from an analytical standpoint only. In fact, the individual and the social person are an inseparable unity. A fetus formed in the mother’s womb is social from the beginning, the fetus has a mother and a father. Without one of them, it cannot become human. Parents and children form the family, the first cell of society.

Are individual human beings and human society natural or the work of a higher mind?

• Atheist viewpoint.

Those who do not believe in gods hold that matter is an objective reality, exists independently, is always fluctuating and will never be lost.

Since ancient times, many Indian thinkers believed that there were four original elements of earth, water, air, and fire, that created the universe and humans, called the four elements. As for China, the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are the basic elements that make up everything.

Greek philosopher Democritus (460 BC) proposed the rudimentary atomic theory which considers matter to be created by the smallest indivisible particles called atoms.

Karl Marx (1818) combined materialism with dialectics to explain the world. He believed that matter is an objective reality, moving on its own according to dialectical laws and transforming each other.

Marx brought dialectical materialism into social life to form historical materialism. According to Marx, what drives historical movement is not metaphysical forces but material production. Marx’s ambition was to make people master themselves and society and the evolution of history.

• Theistic viewpoint.

In contrast to atheism, theists believe that humans, whether evolved or not, were created by God from nothing and arranged according to a plan. People and their society develop in a predetermined direction. The prophet Jeremiah writes, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5).

Man himself is a very great design. New discoveries about DNA and human gene maps prove that humans are like a miniature universe. Each person is a unique individual, and the society in which they live is not natural. It was built for a purpose.

2. SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

• Society creates individual personality.

In one aspect, individuals are not separate from society and the relationship between them is organic. But reality shows that individuals and society are different. Society creates personality and individuals interact with society, making it develop or degenerate.

From language to culture, experience, knowledge, and morality, all are brought by society. We know about the internet, smart phones, along with countless techniques, intelligence, GPT Chat, AI, thanks to the living era.

Many people today forget this and disregard social factors. To live is to live with, we cannot live alone.

J. P. Sartre said, “Other people are hell.” We have to say the opposite to be true. Psychology tells us that loneliness, social isolation, lead us to depression, madness and death. Society provides individuals with happiness, joy, motivation, growth and meaning in life. They forget that society is water, the habitat for

Jesus taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12, 30), “Our mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice (Luke 8, 21). Letter of St. John, “Whoever says ‘I love God’ but hates his brother is a liar” (1 John 4:20).

Charity, the basis of Christianity, would be meaningless without the practice environment of society.

• Social responsibility.

Good society and circumstances make individuals good and vice versa. Victor Hugo, in his work “Les Misérables,” typifies this interaction in the personality of Jean Valjean.

We cannot deny the impact society has on us. DNA is passed down from our parents, whether we want it or not. Original sin is not difficult to understand. If we receive good things, we will also receive disasters due to our ancestors’ mistakes.

Individualism is an extreme, and washing our hands of social responsibility is a mistake.

3. SALVATION IS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL

Marx said, “Human beings are the sum of social relationships.” The individual’s role is only secondary. Marx studied primitive human society and found that in the first public ownership regime, the role of society was respected.

Jewish society, I think, is the same. In the bible, from the beginning, social roles were the priority, then, personal responsibility was gradually expressed, according to evolution.

God’s judgment falls on humans often collectively in great floods, brimstone burnings of the cities of Gomorrah and Sodom, the city of Nineveh’s return through repentance.

“The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and rebellion; yet certainly not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their parents’ iniquity” (Numbers 14,18).

This collective responsibility, with the momentum of evolution, is gradually transferred to the individual.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “In those days they shall no longer say, ‘The parents ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,’ but all shall die because of their own iniquity: the teeth of anyone who eats unripe grapes shall be set on edge” (Jeremiah 31:29-30).

It is written in Deuteronomy, “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for one’s own crime shall a person be put to death” (Deuteronomy 24:16).

Thus, salvation is not collective in society but individual in nature; everyone is responsible for what they do and receives what they do. God gives us freedom as individuals and we are responsible for ourselves.

In the New Testament, Saint Paul clearly states, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10).

However, we must also be mutually responsible to society.

On the day of judgment, God will ask how we treat others: “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’” (Mt 25, 37-40)

Conclusion:

Culture and civilization are the result of interaction between individuals and human society. Science, technology, and creativity belong to the individual within society. They wouldn’t exist if one element was missing.

Jesus said, “My Father works continuously. I also do the same” (John 5, 7). God has ‘planned’ people with creativity, giving them the right to master, from the primitive ignorance to the bright intellectual knowledge like today, through the spectacular evolution of history.

But today’s scientific and technical knowledge is just a grain of sand in the middle of a vast ocean, just as André-Marie Ampère said, “God is so great and our science is just a trifle.”

Science explores existing things, but technology creates new things and creativity is limitless.

Can we control our path if we live aimlessly, unable to determine where we are going, and especially if we eliminate God as the master of history?