Trial in This Life and Life Encouragement 1
In the past，the dark old society reposed people’s hope for fairness and justice in the religious “Last Judgment”, but today, we may use the social technology of “Bank of Merits and Virtues” to turn the illusory “Last Judgment” into a real and fair “Trial in This Life” that can occur openly and at any time.
The Occidental World rests on two major pillars: one is science，and the other is religion. Many scholars believe that the progress of Europe is closely related to the social basis laid by Christianity, and without Christianity there would be no social progress of Europe. Above 95% of Americans believe in religions although they are living in the modern civilization. Along with the development of modern science and technology, people believing in God have not decreased, but become more and more; Religion’s social effect is not getting smaller and smaller, but becoming greater and greater. Although I am a thoroughgoing atheist，not believing any religion，I cannot but face the great social function of religion in moralization.
The elementary theory framework of nearly all religions can not get away from the four interdependent basic tenets，namely, creationism, soul immortalization theory, heaven and hell theory, and retribution theory. The social function of religion is ultimately displayed in “retribution”. God, soul immortalization, Heaven and Hell，and so on, all such concepts center around “retribution”, and all of them are meant for plowing the soil and creating the condition for “retribution”.
When we make a comprehensive view of the three major religions in the world, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism，we shall find, in any of them, there is a mechanism of punishing the evil and upholding the good through their own way of “Last Judgment”. In Christianity, the “Last Judgment” means God “rewards or punishes each one according to their behavior”，and all things people have done would be settled on the day when Christ revived：Righteous people will enjoy eternal happiness in the paradise where the ground is covered with gold, the roofs are made of jewels, they can see beautiful scenes，listen to melodious music，taste all kinds of yummy… It is an Elysium；Those who did many evil things will drop into the bottomless abyss，suffering pain in the fire and water of the Hell. In Islam, all human behaviors are recorded in detail in the “accounts” which are divided into “Book of Benevolence” and “Book of Maleficence”. On the day of Last Judgment, Allah will award or punish all people according to the “accounts”, all things will be settled fairly just like trading, some may go to “Hell”, some may go to “Paradise”, “without any wronging”. In Buddhism，humans and animals can convert from each other, depending on their behavior in the world. If you do evil things, you will become an ox or horse or even meaner things in the great Beyond , or from a noble to a pauper；If you do good things, you may change from an animal to a human, or from a pauper to a noble.
So we can see, the religious retribution and Last Judgment let people fear something, wish for award for virtues and strengthen their willpower in doing good things，and this is just the social function of the religion.
Can we move the religious “Last Judgment” to reality and establish a bar of trial in the real world?
In real life，we have such trial institutions as courts, prisons and so on. However, such a trial is only to punish people for their crimes, especially the most heinous guilt, but the unreligious Last Judgment will give each person (soul) both award and punishment, being a two-way return. If there is only penalty without award，we can only avoid certain extreme maleficences passively；Giving award and punishment to all conducts may both help people avoid the evil and encourage them to seek after the good. The reins of power mentioned by Hanfeizi (an ancient statesman in the Warring States period) included both “award” and “punishment”. Only by working in both ways can we get the best effect.
Encouragement means kindling one’s motivation，generating a great impetus from inside the person, so he will advance towards the expectant goal. Encouragement is the key to action，being the key-press of power. Encouragement may kindle people’s fire of enthusiasm, open up their door to wisdom, may turn laziness into diligence and turn improbity into justice, making people’s impetus of benevolence grow by ten times, hundred times or more.
The power of encouragement is surprisingly great, and of all kinds of encouragement, the most effective one should be life encouragement. Life interest is a person’s greatest interest; without life，nothing will exist. If we compare life encouragement with money encouragement, we will find, the former is greater and more suitable for people’s natural propensity. A farmer in Huaxi Village, Wu Renbao, has a saying highly praised by Chairman Jiang Zemin: “Even if you have tons of gold at home, you will also have three meals a day only; Even if you have many luxurious houses, one person can occupy one bed space only.” Many billionaires have come to such a conclusion: when they have possessed a vast wealth, money will serve as a symbol only. People’s pursuit of money is limited, but their pursuit of life is endless.
Life encouragement does not only include a pursuit of the time of life, but also includes a pursuit of life quality. In the basic attributes of the “god”, “longevity” means a very long life time; “ageless”, “omniscience and omnipotence”, “supreme kindness and supreme beauty” and “daylong ecstasy” refer to a very high quality of life. Hence，the comprehensive and maximal life encouragement is encouragement for becoming “gods”.
If we utilize mankind’s inherent nature to seek life interest limitlessly, and utilize mankind’s limitless pursuit of life time and life quality, to mobilize human’s subjective initiative, exploit human’s maximum potentialities，encourage everyone to make contributions to the society and to the common cause of mankind, so as to build up a mechanism, namely a life encouragement mechanism，then, we will certainly be able to boost the great undertaking of mankind’s becoming gods together to the best effect. Just as the American stock equity system has triggered the new economy, with this life encouragement system, we will usher in the era of becoming “gods” together at a faster rate.
Psychologist V. H. Frum has a famous encouragement formula：
M＝V * E
(M — encouragement effect or level；V — valence，namely the realized magnitude of value of the encouragement objective seen from the subjective perspective; E — expected value，namely expectation of the possibility of realization of such an encouragement objective)
The encouragement formula has shown, the two parameters, valence and expected value，i.e. “importance” and “possibility”, decide the encouragement effect jointly. Judging from the encouragement formula，the valence of life encouragement is great beyond comparison，as we have discussed the great value of eternal life in Chapter II；The expected value of life encouragement is also extremely great, not only because the flying progress of life technology has brought the great possibility to break through the life limit in a short time and realize eternal life, but also because the practicing of the life encouragement mechanism has got a tangible guarantee both in theory and in technology, thus, it has become very feasible now. Hence，the effect of life encouragement on people will surely be matchlessly great.
In exercising the life encouragement system, we shall need the implementation of the “Bank of Merits and Virtues” technology. The field of natural science falls into science and technology. Owing to the fast development of modern technology, technology has become the idol of our age. However，our concept on technology is often limited to the natural science field，not including the social field. In fact，in the social field, we do not only need social science，but also need social technology! The technology of Bank of Merits and Virtues is actually a social technology resulting from high technology.
The Bank of Merits and Virtues is an information bank that records completely and truly the merits and virtues of each member of the whole society. Any person’s dribs and drabs of merits and virtues will be recorded, especially their behavior in the undertaking of mankind’s becoming “gods”. And, any one may refer to the records freely. Worldwide，we can build up a great evaluation system for individuals’ merits and virtues, so as to improve the whole working process, from the collecting and recording of information on merits and virtues to the evaluation, certification, reporting and inquiry systems. Meanwhile，the Immortal-becoming Undertaking Association that controls the key resources will evaluate each person’s conduct, and give just award or punishment to them according to their conduct.
The merits and virtues evaluation system will examine both “merits” (contributions) and “virtues” (morality), each accounting for 50%. Finally, according to general grading of the merits and virtues, we shall set the grades for enjoying the god-becoming resources, deciding which people should have the priority to enjoy them. That is to say，in the evaluation, we shall review both the person’s contribution (especially to the undertaking of mankind’s becoming immortal) and his(her) credit standing, virtues and personality. Bank of Merits and Virtues system abides by such a rule: allocation according to merits and virtues, allocation according to distributions, using merits and virtues to change for life，and using contributions to change for life. Allocation according to “merits”, is just like distribution according to work；Allocation according to “virtues” means distribution according to the degree of kindness, that is, good for good and evil for evil. We shall pay equal attention to both aspects, evaluate the overall contributions and morality，including all kinds of performance, all kinds of awards won, all kinds of public benefit contributions and so on. Contributions to public benefit undertakings can be considered both as merits and as virtues. Especially the generous donation to the undertaking of mankind’s becoming immortal should be regarded as an alms deed with boundless beneficence. The reason is: A donation to the undertaking of becoming “gods” together is both a great contribution and a great virtue，as it can accelerate the process of becoming “gods” together, and let more people enjoy the great life interest brought about by the undertaking. It is contributing to other people’s benefit and happiness, being a display of great merits and virtues to mankind and the world.
Merits and virtues are in a dialectical unity. People usually set morality against utility. In fact，the foundation of morality is utility. An eminent economist said: “Only when others can gain a benefit will you think it is worthwhile sacrificing your interest，and the benefit others get is usually greater than the interest you lose, which is just the normal basis of morality. Thus, performing a moral obligation is not for an illusory purpose, not for the sake of asceticism. If a moral code damages the interest of all people, it will no longer be considered as moral, but in fact, it will be just against morality. If we fail to see the utilitarianism of morality in essence, just see the anti-utility character of it on the surface, we shall never master the pith of morality, and shall get confused in commenting about moral questions.” The merits and virtues system is just a system stressing the harmony and unity of merits and virtues. The merits and virtues system has brought about the greatest impetus for realization of the fine ideal of mankind’s becoming “gods” together，and this system itself is also the greatest act of morality.
Technically speaking, the merits and virtues system has also got highly mature conditions for operation. In the past age characterized by inefficient passing of information, adopting the merits and virtues system for life encouragement could only be a daydream. But in the present information age，by the Internet technology and information technology, we can organize all social members of the world, can do the fastest and best work in collecting, counting and examining the merits and virtues of each social member, and besides, we can publish such information to the whole society and whole world, and can give award or punishment to all the members timely. Using the network intelligence system to manage everyone’s information on merits and virtues can not only avoid any man-made interference, but also ensure a high efficiency and a high quality.
The merits and virtues system must be fair, just and open. Both fairness and justice should be ensured by openness. Only by resolutely stopping dark operation and putting everything in the sunlight can we ensure fairness and justice. Utilizing information technology to set up a democratic Internet-based system may open everything to the public, not like the old-time archives secrecy system in which the person concerned could hardly see his(her) own archives throughout his life, so the restricting or encouraging effect was very little. The merits and virtues system stresses the open principle. Anybody，including your business rivals，your friend met for the first time, or even a stranger who hears your name on the way for the first time, may know your condition of merits and virtues, and of course, you yourself can also know it completely. When you find false records about your merits and virtues, you may request to correct or even resort to legal proceedings. All in all，a merits and virtues management system established by utilizing the information technology can be the most direct, most effective and most fair rule for evaluation of people’s behavior.
In the past，the dark old society reposed the hope for fairness and justice on the religion: “Before God, everyone is equal”，when the last day comes, “God” will decide fairly whether you should “go down to Hell” or “go up to Heaven” according to your conduct in this life. Today，by using the “Bank of Merits and Virtues” technology，we can turn the illusory “Last Judgment” into a real “trial in this life” that is fair and just, and can happen any time.