16 The Quest / Being Human

Our existence does not take place in a vacuum but in a particular kind of habitat or environment. One way of describing the environment in which being human takes place is as a sea of values. This episode maintains that the human condition is one in which we can ignore certain universal moral principles, like love and justice, only at our own great peril. Rather than seeing these principles as being arbitrarily imposed on life, this reflection understands them to run through life and to be part of the very nature of reality. It is further asserted with E. Stanley Jones that: "We are evidently free to choose, but we are not free to choose the results of our choosing;" and, that spiritual transformation is possible only when we grasp the metaphor of sin as a power taking up residence in out lives and controlling us.