Morality ought to be our first concern, but according to others including Abraham Maslow, our physical needs come first – the hungry, cold, thirsty, uncomfortable being must attend to these physical states before arts and sciences become appealing. However, is not the addressing of hunger, cold, thirst and discomfort an art and science in itself? Is it not the process of creation and experimentation that leads to them being satiated?

Maslow et al were merely doing what many of us do every day; choosing between the chicken and the egg. What came first? What followed? Who’s to blame? etc

We have a deep need to make this choice. It’s as if there is a hunger, cold, thirst and discomfort that requires a choice to be made, an origin to be pinpointed. This suggests that the presence of The Chicken and the Egg phenomenon is not some idle pastime. It is the symptom of a deep, primal aspect of our being – the hunger for a point of fixed reference.

It’s as if we cannot bear to be ignorant of the one thing that makes everything make sense. But is there one thing? Is there truly one reference point that when locked on to can ensure we will never be lost ever again?

Some say there is – It is what we call God. Yet even with God there is the chicken and egg process. Many ask who made this one true reference point, instantly questioning its truth. And thus the process begins again.

There is the possibility, perhaps probability, perhaps definite truth that there is simply no such reference point. That our hunger for it is merely a faculty of nature to keep us going; keep us living – ever hunting for one true sense-engendering jewel – A heaven, a paradise; a nirvana.

It is said that we are moving from being homo-sapiens to homo-consumerists. Leaving behind wisdom and thought for the practice of simply eating, drinking, building and making ourselves comfortable. If this is true it alludes to that theorised faculty of nature; that hunger or thirst recognized by all religions and philosophies.

But of course with insatiable hunger and thirst comes the specter of obesity of mind, body and soul and based on obesity levels today, it would seem that nature’s faculty is now a difficulty; one that might tip us over the edge of the abyss; where all hunger, cold, thirst and discomfort are made void.

Maslow was not right about our physical needs being prior to our appeal to science and art but he was close. Our physical needs via appeal to science and art must become our priority – not because they are our number one priority, but because they have become our number one threat. That threat is our priority – and always has been.

That is why we created morality – it was our attempt at preventing our hunger, cold, thirst and discomfort driving us into the voiding abyss. Morality is not about choice; it’s about survival. And it would seem that a look at our survival strategy at the moment suggest we are in dire need of putting morality back at the heart of our focus.

It might not be a fixed reference point; however morality is at least a cluster of beacons that keep us from falling into the abyss.