Interconnections

In Ethical Culture, we say “deed not creed” (or some variants, including “deed above creed” and “deed beyond creed”). The intent is to acknowledge that more important than what we believe is what we do with what we believe.

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion.” – Albert Einstein.

In Ethical Culture and Unitarian Univeralism (UU), we say “deed not creed” or some variants, including “deed above creed” and “deed beyond creed”.  The intent is to acknowledge that more important than what we believe is what we do with what we believe.  The intent originally was also to emphasize that the unity within an Ethical Society or UU congregation is based on our deeds, not on our beliefs – for our members often have strong beliefs, and these don’t always agree.

But one area in which we do tend to agree is in a deep belief in the interconnections between people. Any two of us are interconnected, not completely independent of one another. On a larger scale, what happens in one part of the world affects people in another part of the world.  And we are interconnected with, not separate from, the rest of nature and the natural world. We are a part of the natural world and part of the whole that we call Universe, as Einstein asserted.

It’s not a completely new thought, of course.  But it does distinguish us from a selfish individualism, a “me first and only” kind of thinking that, unfortunately, today pervades our economic and political systems.

Science, in the specialty of neuroscience, tells us that this concept of interconnection is basic to our humanity. Our mind and brain are shaped by interactions with others, and we shape their brains.  We couldn’t develop into full adulthood successfully without interactions with others.

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ethics -- social and interpersonal responsibility – is rooted in the concept of interdependence: what we do actually makes a difference to others, and what we don’t do also affects the whole.  Working to make our institutions ever more caring and just is more than an ideal, it’s a responsibility. Ultimately, there is no such thing as a separate self-interest, because self and other selves are always interconnected.