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God and World Law

By Garry Davis

"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts. The rest is detail."
- Albert Einstein

The notion of God as Law itself is doubtless as old as human awareness of Nature's awesome diversity, usefulness and terrible destructive power.

In the previous issue of World Citizen News, we wrote of world law and human rights as being dynamically connected-indeed, as two parts of one social/civic whole. On this occasion, we will try to link God and world law.

Consider: gurus and saviors been promoting world law from time immemorial. From the Buddhist's twelve precepts for right living, through the Decalogue, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, world human codes of conduct have constantly been proclaimed.

If we acknowledge that God created the Earth and all that lives upon it, can His/Her law be anything but world law, that is, law for all humans?

But if God from ancient times has been used to sanction world law, can He/She likewise be used to sanction national law, world law's very antithesis? National law, by definition, is exclusionary, whereas world law is inclusive. The Bible states that a person cannot serve two masters: God and Mammon. Yet nationalism demands absolute obedience of its subjects, while God demands absolute obedience to His/Her laws.

One of humanity's modern sages, Guru Nataraja of Travancore, wrote in his epic Memorandum on World Government: "Humanity is one by its common origin, one in its common interests and motives of happiness here on earth in everyday living, and one in its relation to the aspirations and ideals which bind human beings together by bonds of sympathy for each other. A unitive and absolute value is at the basis of human life.... It makes no discrimination between rich or poor, high or low, civilized or backward.... Just as One Humanity is true, so One Absolute Justice for all mankind, One Goodness applicable to all mankind, and One God or Ideal of Human Happiness could be stated to be at the basis of common human existence."

The September 4, 1953 declaration of World Government formulated three principles or "prime laws" for its sanction: One Deity (or Ideal, Vision, Source, Spirit, Wisdom, Truth); One World, and One Humankind. From recognition of these three "prime laws," we claimed, there derived both world law and world citizenship, which could therefore be implemented globally. The active agent was identified as the sovereign human being free to choose his/her political allegiance.

From time immemorial people have invoked God to bless their gatherings and endeavors.

"God Bless America!"
"God Save the Queen!"
"Gott mit uns!"

"We, the representatives of the people of Costa Rica, freely elected to the national constituent Assembly, invoking in the name of God...."

The constitution of Barbados proclaims that the country's people "are a sovereign nation founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God," while the constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan begins, "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful..."

The Bhutan constitution invokes the "grace of God" in maintaining "the independence and national integrity of our country," whereas Antigua and Barbuda's constitution states that the people "proclaim that they are a sovereign nation founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God..."

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

"In God We Trust."

"He hath made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion."

Along with World Citizen Toma Sik, I once placed the World Flag on a stone slab behind Jerusalem's Western Wall with the Mosque of the Dome to our left and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to our right. Because all holy sites are God's earthly "homes," we claimed they could be protected only by world law. And since only the World Government is grounded in world law, we declared that all holy sites were thereby placed under the sovereign protection of the World Government.

Despite human foolishness and hypocrisy, God's earthly "homes"-be they churches, mosques, or temples-are actually situated on world, not national, territory.

In Bosnia/Herzegovina, mosques, churches and temples have been destroyed by Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians in military uniforms, all claiming to believe in the one God. But because their actions belie that belief, let's reverse the usual question. Does God believe in these killers, or are they to be considered spiritually dead?

What is missing in Bosnia/Herzegovina-indeed, in all of today's world? Where is the common moral ground, the social glue, nay, the spiritual presence, without which a peaceful social order is impossible?

"God governs in the affairs of men; and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, neither can a kingdom rise without His aid."

The Dayton peace agreements fail to seek the sanction of the Almighty in their application to Bosnia/Herzegovina. And they could well have done so, given that the three signatory presidents-Alija Izetbegovic, Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman-all worship the same God, albeit in different ways and under different names.

Similarly, the presidents' host, Bill Clinton, did not invoke the blessings of the Almighty for this peace pact, even as he promised to dispatch 20,000 well-armed U.S. "peacekeepers." It is also most unlikely that those troops have been made aware that God is overseeing their mission. Of this there can be no doubt since, as Jesus put it, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Leaders such as those who gathered in Dayton must learn that only world law sanctified by a benevolent God can cope with apocalyptic situations such as that which has prevailed in Bosnia/Herzegovina.

On the other hand, we, as World Citizens, here declare the embryonic state of Bosnia/Herzegovina a "world state" within the political framework of the World Government of World Citizens. We further call upon all its peoples to register with the World Service Authority as World Citizens.

Only in this way can God's peace truly prevail in Bosnia/Herzegovina-and everywhere on earth.

"'An impersonal God, a deterministic universe, a churchless religion, disregard of money and material gain, world government, pacifism, and socialism-all of these are pretty generally thought to be un-American and more or less subversive.' Einstein believed in the lot."
-Einstein, His Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark


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