A Unifying Philosophy of Governance

Professor Sankarshan Acharya

University of Illinois at Chicago

Citizens for Development

[email-masked], [email-masked]

First
Draft August 1995.  Revised December 15,
2008

Abstract

This article offers a coherent and unified philosophy about how humans
have universally formed beliefs to govern themselves.  The universal rendering of beliefs articulated
here subsumes the characterization of probability beliefs in mathematics,
science, engineering, economics as well as religion.  The universal beliefs so articulated obviate the
currently prevalent philosophical conflicts between religion and science or
between theism and atheism and paves the way for optimal governance for
prosperity amid stability.  The unifying
philosophy can, thus, help humanity achieve unity, stability and prosperity,
sans antagonism, wars, nuclear proliferation, global warming and atmospheric
pollution.

The Necessity of a
Unifying Philosophy in Governance

Should
a society be governed by religious scripts like Gita, Bible or Quoran or by the
modern constitution?  The religious
scripts prescribe codes for how humans should form beliefs and govern
themselves.  Some people feel that their
religious scripts are superior to every other form of governance and advocate
elimination of humans who do not follow their scripts.

Scientists
have argued that religion should not interfere with governance.  But they have failed to articulate god, even scientifically.  This failure leaves scope for some people to
believe that their god and religion are superior to others and that they have a
right to wage suicidal war against others.
This is the source of terrorism that is vitiating a common human longing
for prosperity amid stability.

This
paper articulates a unifying philosophy of governance - Universal Beliefs and
Universal God - that can be acceptable to the followers of all religions as
well as to atheists and scientists.  We
argue that the unifying philosophy subsumes ancient religious beliefs, science
and atheism.

The
goal of the unifying philosophy is to awaken humans to think of the unifying
philosophy in governance in order to attain their common longing for prosperity
amid stability.  We argue that the
unifying philosophy of governance is the most potent nonviolent weapon against
terrorism that hobbles attainment of the common human longing.  The unifying philosophy of governance should
be urgently publicized to thwart terrorism nonviolently and to beget prosperity
amid stability.

Beliefs, Religion,
God and Science

Humans
have formed their own beliefs about the set of unknown elements of the
universe.  Such beliefs are called probability beliefs in
mathematics, science and engineering.
Humans have branded their beliefs about the elements in the unknown set as
religion.  Even economists characterize the probability distribution of
the unknowable random error in an econometric model as their religion.

The measure theory on probability
beliefs about the uncertain elements of the universe is a rationally defined
doctrine or religion.  This theory is
widely used to characterize probability distributions in mathematics, science
and engineering.  Assumed probability beliefs about
the states of nature are crucial for asset pricing which is central to the
fields of economics and finance.  The
concept of wealth cannot be formalized without such beliefs.

The
process of formation of beliefs about the unknown elements is thus common to
all fields including religion.  But this
common process does not automatically produce a unifying philosophy of
governance because of the incoherence in beliefs about god across religions.  The atheists and scientists do not accept
god, while the religious individuals do.

The
challenge of articulating a unifying philosophy thus rests on rendering god in
a way that will be commonly acceptable to the religious people as well as to
the scientists and the atheists.

To
render god coherently, we divide the set of all elements in the universe into
two disjoint subsets.  The first subset
comprises all elements of the universe that are known to humans.  Call the first set Knowledge.  The second subset contains the rest of the
elements of the universe.  Call the
second set Unknowable.  The two
disjoint sets are not static. They are evolving dynamically over
time.  Knowledge is
expanding.  Unknowable is
shrinking, but it still remains infinite, or Anant in Sanskrit.

Our
unifying philosophy renders the Unknowable
set as Universal God and beliefs about the elements in this set as
Universal Beliefs.  We call the
set of unknowable elements universal god because it forms the common
basis of characterizing god in all the existing religions.

The
Universal God is known as the set of unknowable elements. This
is unlike the existing proclamation by many that God is unknown.

God
cannot be simply unknown.  A coherently
rendered God should comprise the whole unknowable set of elements.  Why? Suppose that god is simply unknown, as believed
by the followers of current religions. An unknown god will simply be a subset
of the Unknowable set.   But every
religion also admits that god is Almighty.
This means god cannot be a mere subset of the Unknowable.  It is because such a subset will exclude some
elements of the Unknowable that are not within the reach of god.  This shows that god, as the unknown Almighty,
must be the entire Unknowable set. The Unknowable is thus a coherent rendition
of a Universal God that can be accepted by followers of current religions as
well as the scientists and atheists.

Humans
at any point in time do not know the elements in the Unknowable at that
time.  But they know the existence of the
Unknowable.  The Universal God is thus
known as the Unknowable set, while its shape or the elements it comprises are
unknown.

In
Universal Religion, those who are
expanding Knowledge are like
"Sons of God."  A quest for new knowledge is tantamount to a
longing to uncover some elements of the Unknowable.
The longing to reach god in the existing religions is called
prayer.  The longing to reach Universal God
in Universal Religion is called
scientific research, perseverance and tenacity.

Scientists
are true Sons of God because they are continually uncovering the
elements of the Unknowable, which is Universal God.  Now pause for a moment to
ponder why this notion of Son of God applies equally to Einstein, Vivekananda,
Christ, Mohammad, Krishna, and Mahatma Gandhi.  They were all seeking new
knowledge by discovering some elements of the set of Unknowable, which was mystery to the rest of humans at the
time.

Mahatma
Gandhi, for example, uncovered a new methodology called Satyagraha to liberate
the subjugated humans. Satyagraha is non-violent protest against unfairness and
injustice. Satyagraha's potency against injustice was unknown to humans then.
The humanity followed and revered Gandhi because of his potently successful
discovery of the new way (Satyagraha) of achieving freedom from the
oppressors.  The new method or knowledge that the Mahatma unleashed was
unknowable before he enunciated it.

We
could extend the above logic about new discoveries of elements from the
Unknowable set to describe that Einstein,[1]
Christ, Swami Vivekananda,[2]
Mohammad and Krishna as Son of God or Prophet or Reincarnation.  The
central point being made here is discovery of sufficiently important unknown
elements of the Unknowable set that induces humans to treat the discoverer as
superior to themselves.

Hindus
(people living in India) called Krishna as a “Reincarnation” of God. People in
the Middle East called Christ as “Son” of God. Mohammad improvised the term
“Son” or “Reincarnation” as “Prophet.”  These humans have basically
articulated some (scientific) process to uncover some elements of the Unknowable or Universal
God as in Universal Religion.

So
the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and all others can
intrinsically believe in Universal Religion
and Universal God.

Knowledge
is time-specific.
Knowledge evolves over time.  It
is a Sigma Algebra in mathematics and Information Set in Economics.  Every
field of science rests on a system of beliefs or probabilities about uncertain
states of nature. These beliefs are used to form expectations about the
uncertain states for decision making and controlling of events in science.
Beliefs in the field of financial economics are used to determine prices of
commodities and services. Beliefs are thus the basis of wealth and prosperity. The system of modern scientific beliefs is thus subsumed
within Universal Religion.

Any
economic variable like household income can be decomposed into two parts: (i)
one which is conditional on all the information of the economist and (ii) the
other comprising the rest, which is characterized as an unexplainable random
variable or the error in the model.  Economists assume (form beliefs) that
the unexplainable random error follows certain theoretical properties.
Their assumption (belief) is “religious” as admitted by a prominent professor
of economics during my doctoral studies.  Some economist can have a better
model that can explain a greater part of an economic variable like the
household income.  The random error (unexplainable or unknowable part) in
the better model shrinks the set of uncertainty in explaining household
income.  Humans tend to call the random element in their household income
as Luck (bad or good) because they
cannot explain the random draw in this error, based on known factors that are
supposed to determine income.

Evolution of
the Philosophy of Governance

Krishna composed Gita to communicate a
philosophy of governance of human behavior needed to restore justice and peace,
even through war.  Christ offered codes
for human behavior scripted in the form of Bible.  Swamy Vivekananda had once longed to have a common religion that could be acceptable to
all humans. Our unifying philosophy of Universal Religion with the
corresponding rendition of Universal God may fulfill that longing.

Two fundamental tenets of Prophet Mohammad that attracted Islam to one-fifth of
humanity are (i) equality of all humans with no one like Christ as "Son of
God" or Krishna as reincarnation of God and (ii) riba-free economy in
which no money lender charges a positive interest rate.  Saint Vashistha
was the first to speak against usurious interest rates. Philosophers like
Aristotle and Plato have spoken against usurious interest rates. A rich
merchant like Mohammad became famous when he lent his money without interest
and enunciated equality of all humans.  Mohammad was very confident of his
message.  His following was so strong that he could not visualize the importance
of amendments to his Islamic philosophy of governance scripted in Koran, Sunnah
and Sariat in 700 AD.  Islam views deviations from these scripts as
blasphemy and metes severe punishments to those who deviate from or speak on
irrationality of its rigid scripts.  Some Koranic verses, unfortunately,
advocate violence towards those (infidels) who do not accept Islam.  The Islamic
philosophy of governance advocates extinguishing relics and culture of all
older religions.

The constitutional rules of governance have thus evolved through wisdom
cultivated since the ancient times.  Contrast
the two fundamental Islamic tenets with (a) the first written constitution
(that of USA) of the world which admits equality and (b) the American monetary
system that follows a zero real interest rate policy.  Americans do not
prescribe decrees and fatwa.  But they have rationally adopted the most
important virtues of the Islamic philosophy through individual liberty,
freedom, equality of opportunities and competition.  America may thus be the
most Islamic nation on earth.  Most "Islamic" nations - ruled by
dictators, monarchs and mullahs who treat themselves as superior to all other
Muslims they lord over - are un-Islamic.  Autocratic Muslim rulers are
desecrating the principal tenet of Islam by treating themselves as superior to
fellow Muslims.  They are most un-Islamic.  By accepting dictatorial
rulers, most Muslims have disrespected their own Prophet's message.  This
is the most sacrilegious act of most Muslims against their own Prophet.
Most Islamic nations are truly un-Islamic, despite the rhetoric of
self-serving, aggrandizing, entrenching mullahs, dictators, and monarchs.

The religious scripts have basically prescribed how humans should govern
themselves.  The incoherence or blind
faith about god in these scripts has, however, led humans to devise the constitutional
system of governance and to separate state from religion.

Our
unifying philosophy scripted as Universal
Religion defines prayer as perseverance to uncover the truth
through research about the set of unknown elements of the universe.  This philosophy treats the constitutional
system of governance as a discovery through human perseverance.  Humans following this philosophy will still
continue to pray the Universal God,
i.e., to conduct scientific research to attain the truth about the unknown
elements of the universe.

The
democratic system of governance too evolved through human perseverance.  The constitutional system of democratic
governance is thus a principal tenet of the unifying philosophy of Universal
Religion. This subsumes the human wisdom of philosophers, prophets, scientists
and other religious preceptors. The other principal tenet of Universal Religion
is to amend the constitutional system of governance over time. The guiding tenet of Universal
Religion is to ensure that the constitution reflects the latest human knowledge
and wisdom for governance of society.  This is an almost
universal agreement among all humans irrespective of their current creed,
religion and national origin. Such universal agreement is very profound.
This universality in agreement makes Universal Religion universal. Universal Religion is
necessary to enhance prosperity and stability of humanity.

Can
the universal tenet of "constitutional system of democratic
governance" be taken as sacrosanct?  It should be because no other tenet
that is universally more acceptable.  This common tenet is optimal
for humanity, though it is not ideal.

Efficacy of the
Unified Philosophy of Governance

A common human
longing is to prosper in a society that can maintain stability.  But prosperity is possible only if the
philosophy of governance helps individuals produce globally competitive goods
and services.  Otherwise, the society
will be uncompetitive, with perpetual trade deficits and weak currency.

Existing
religions do not unify humanity and do not beget prosperity amid stability that
every human inherently embraces.  Preaching that some existing religion is
superior to others is thus specious.  So is indoctrinating humans at young
age, when they cannot reason rationally.

If the philosophy
of governance cannot help produce globally competitive goods and services, the
leaders have two options: (i) admit failure of their philosophy to lose power
or (ii) divert the society from the failed philosophy, fabricate external enemies
and unite society to wage war or terrorism against the enemies. Societies that
have wisely separated religious dogma from governance and adopted a system of
changing leaders imbued in failed philosophies have remained stable and
prosperous.

Only the unifying philosophy of Universal Religion, not the existing religious beliefs, induces humans to persevere and produce to attain prosperity amid stability for humans.[3]  Only this philosophy jells with the inner spirit common to all humans. Propagation of this philosophy among masses can unify humanity and render all other religions beliefs superfluous.  The state leaders should urgently broadcast the unifying philosophy of governance to beget prosperity amid stability.[4]

The unifying philosophy is the best nonviolent weapon against terrorism. Masses of every religion long for prosperity amid stability, notwithstanding their indoctrination at young age when they could not think or decide.  Terrorist leaders are driven by self-aggrandizement interests.  But they cannot recruit suicide squads to engage in terrorism if the unified philosophy permeates among masses who inherently pine for prosperity amid stability.  Masses will embrace the unifying philosophy to fulfill their longing for prosperity amid stability, and not die for a religious philosophy that fails to fulfill their longings.

Most humans have willy-nilly accepted religious beliefs of their parents when they were born, i.e., when they could not question or reason.  But even parents should not impose on their children beliefs about anything including religion.  Beliefs should evolve through own conscience and reasoning.

The humanity will eventually embrace the unifying philosophy of Universal Religion and God, for this is the only path to fulfill the common pining for prosperity amid stability in democratic capitalism.  Political leaders representing the common longing should, however, propagate the common philosophy to hasten its acceptance by masses to avoid the pain and violence.

Is God the source of
all knowledge?

It
has been argued[5] that “God
is the source of all knowledge…. Knowledge is the mother of technology….,
technology is power…. USS Harry S. Truman has more destructive power at his
command than the collective military might at the command of all Muslim
generals on the face of the planet.”

Such
argument is specious as it implies that the Americans with all the knowledge of
mankind are gods and omnipotent, at least the most powerful among all others on
earth.  But the Americans do not believe
that they are gods when they (a) admit in their most sacred script,
constitution and declaration of independence, that all are equal and (b) dissociate
their governance from religions and gods. The American system of governance
includes production and usage of knowledge, including that needed to build
military might.  Americans really follow Universal Religion and seek the
truth through scientific research to discover the elements of the Unknowable
(Universal God). They use the uncovered knowledge optimally and do not hesitate
to wage wars against those who oppose such a path to seek truth, liberty and
prosperity.

Having
all the knowledge and using the same does not make the Americans gods. Aptly,
though, the scientists among them and elsewhere in the world are sons of God.
Societies that cannot retain and nurture scientists are doomed to fail. Failed
societies (like the failed individuals) will see the successful ones as
enemies.

Coherence of the
Unified Philosophy of Governance

Rendering
god as the set of elements unknown to humans obviates prevalent confusions and
ambiguities about god and knowledge. Seeking new knowledge is like discovering the
elements of the Unknowable through a process which is known as scientific
research in modern thinking or traditional prayer to god in prevalent
religions.  Scientific research or prayer is intended to uncover the
truth, i.e., bring to the domain of Knowledge some elements that heretofore
were in the Unknowable set or were a part of Universal God.

The
process of searching for the truth is common to science and religion. We
thus have several unambiguous definitions: (i) the Unknowable is God, (ii)
Science is Knowledge, and (iii) Belief about the Unknowable is Religion.
Such transparent and coherent definitions can obviate prevalent confusions
across current religions and fields of science. Coherence in rendition of a
common set of beliefs can attract all humans to the same unifying philosophy
irrespective of their current religions, races, castes, creeds and
nationalities.

Coherence
and universal acceptability of such definitions make Universal Religion truly
universal.

Scientists
need to form probability beliefs about the elements in the Unknowable set in
the normal course of their research to make discoveries.  Atheists and
theists can treat the probability beliefs as the religious beliefs of the
scientists.  Scientists should have no hesitation to treat ancient
religious beliefs as akin to the widely used probability beliefs.  To form beliefs (be religious) about the
unknown is human and common to all religions, branches of science and
mathematics.  We thus have a unifying
philosophy of forming beliefs about the Unknowable that can be acceptable to
the theists, atheists as well as scientists.  The unifying philosophy is truly
universal.

God
has been perceived as the unknown almighty in every religion. Swami Vivekananda[6] makes a powerful argument for
why humans should seek knowledge by uncovering the truth about the unknown.[7]
But he does not posit the Unknowable as God. The common perception that God is
unknown does not automatically imply that the Unknowable set is God. In
general, there could be many other elements including the commonly perceived
God in the Unknowable set. This causes confusion about rendering God simply as unknown.
Our rendering of Universal God as the complete Unknowable set avoids such
confusion.

Coherent Rendition
of God, Religion and Science

A
universally acceptable rendering of god is necessary to complete a coherent
philosophical view of science and religion.
This is vital to avoid the mutual antagonism among people of different
faiths.

Bertrand
Russell very lucidly argues about science winning over religion. Scientists and
mathematicians may not call the Unknowable set as god perhaps because of a
legitimate fear of mixing the nomenclature followed in orthodox religions. But
they cannot deny the existence of the Unknowable, which is rendered here as
Universal God.

Bertrand
Russell compares and contrasts the existing orthodox religious dogmas with
science to conclude that science has won over religion. Such conclusions have
been rooted on the Copernican Revolution on the principle of separation[8] of religious beliefs from
governance of societies. The societies that have followed the principle of
separation have prospered enormously. Countries like India have adopted the
principle of separation, but not practiced it.

Philosophers
like Russell, sadhus like Vivekananda, prophets like Mohammed, politicians like
Gandhi and scientists like Einstein have failed to rationalize or define god
which is common to all existing religions. With god undefined, humans will
naturally remain incoherently mired in divers religious dogmas on god and the
chasm between theists and atheists will continue. Raging debates on existence
of god among rationalists, scientists and proponents of various religions will
resolve little until we succeed in rationally defining god to vive with universal
human beliefs.

The
definition of Universal God as the set of Unknowable elements of the universe
is rational and should be universally acceptable to people following different
orthodox faiths. This definition allows formation of rational beliefs about God
(i.e., about elements of the Unknowable set) to test hypotheses as
Knowledge expands over time. The definition of Universal God is necessary to
complete a coherent philosophical rendition of science and religion, which is
vital to obviate mutual antagonism[9] among humans and societies.

Fundamental tenets
of Universal Religion

Optimal
determination of tenets of any religion should be based on enhancement of
stability and prosperity of humankind.  For example, democracy[10] is the best (though not ideal)
form of governance accepted by humans as optimal.  Democracy is thus a
fundamental tenet of Universal Religion.  Similarly, amending constitutional
rules of law through optimal discourse and vote within democracy is the other
tenet.  Indeed, Gita in Hinduism, Bible in Christianity, Quoran in Islam
and such scripts in other religions were meant to be “guiding” rules of
governance for humans.  These scripts have never been amended to
incorporate the latest human wisdom including the democratic process of
creation and amendment of the constitutional rules of law. They have, thus,
become somewhat dogmatic and sacrosanct.  The societies that have
unshackled their governance from such dogma have enhanced their prosperity and stability.

Necessity of
Universal Religion

Accepting
Universal Religion does not amount to an automatic abandonment of current
beliefs of an individual. This is nice because no individual will ever feel
anything wrong about accepting Universal Religion as in a conversion to a
different religion. Universal Religion gives a complete freedom to choose
and even to refine the script through rational arguments in sync with human
wisdom.  Such freedom is enshrined in the constitution of countries
governed by constitutional rules of law.  Individuals following Universal
Religion will see no inconsistency between governance of a constitutionally run
country and their own religious beliefs.  Universal Religion thus obviates
the issue of "separation of church and state."

Conclusion

The
purpose of a unified philosophy of governance is to help develop coherence in
thinking to unite humanity under one banner of Universal
God and Universal Religion.
The ulterior goal of such union is stability
and prosperity
of humanity through optimal governance[11] and by crippling the politico-religious
leaders who exploit the vast majority for self-aggrandizement and
self-entrenchment in power. A follower of Universal Religion will still be a
theist praying Universal God continually as slated above.

[1] See Walter Isaacson, April 2004, “Einstein’s Religion and
God,” Washington Post, http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Einstein%20and%20God.html

[2] See
Swami Vivekananda, “The Known and Unknown,”
http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Knowledge-Vivekananda.html.

[3] http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Three-pronged-strategy-to-thwart-terrorism.html

[4]
“Prosperity amid Stability: A New Paradigm for Democratic Capitalism,” http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Research/Prosperity%20Amid%20Stability%20-%20A%20New%20Economic%20Paradigm.pdf

[5] See
Farrukh Saleem, February 2007, “The Capital Suggestion: Knowledge,” The News,
http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Knowledge-Saleem.html.

[6] Listen
Swami Vivekananda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsBw68KLu3c

[7] See
Swami Vivekananda, “The Known and Unknown,”
http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Knowledge-Vivekananda.html.

[8]See
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, September 2007, “The Political and the Divine,” New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/books/review/Goldstein-t.html

[9] See P.V.
Indiresan, September 2007, “Ram, Religion and Religious Beliefs,” Indian
Express. http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Ram-Religion-Science.html

[10] See
news report, September 2006, “World Religions Talk God and Democracy,”
“http://www.pro-prosperity.com/God%20and%20Democracy.html

[11] See S.
Acharya, October 2005, “Prosperity: Optimal Governance, Banking, Capital
Markets, Global Trading and Exchange Rate.” Citizens Publishing,
http://www.pro-prosperity.com/Citizens%20Publishing/TableOfContents.pdf