The source of morality (part 3)

OK, Morality: Part Three.

So we all have a sense of right and wrong. Or most of us anyway, and those who lack that sense are considered abnormal (sociopaths, or at the farthest end of that aberration, psychopaths). In any case, it’s considered “normal” to have a sense of morality. So where does this come for? Many would say it comes from our religion and originates with God. I’ve already written that I don’t think it comes from religion; if that were the case then why don’t we have as many moral codes as there are religions? (Read “The source of morality, parts 1 and 2” in this blog). But maybe looking at religion is the wrong way of going about it. I have argued that religion is just each person’s attempt to understand their connection to god (or God), and as such, is fallible. So let’s go a step higher, bypass religion, and consider that morality comes from God.

Well then, if that’s the case, then how would the concepts of morality get transmitted to each of us? If it’s not through religion, then maybe we had this “put into us;” in other words we’re hard wired for morality. That seems to make sense, given the universality of a sense of right and wrong. But then the question becomes did this come from God, or is it possible there’s another mechanism? Those who believe in God will tell you the answer is obvious: God created us that way; end of story. But if that’s true, why do we wrestle so much with moral dilemmas? If God gave us our moral code, wouldn’t that mean there would be no ambiguity? The “right thing to do” would be obvious in each situation, wouldn’t it? I’m not a parent, but if I were, I would not allow for any ambiguity in my instructions to a child; I’d say “do this” or “don’t do that” with as much clarity as possible. I would think that if it were important enough for God to build this into us, then it would work pretty reliably; more or less like the sense of direction works for migratory birds, spawning salmon, etc. No failures, wrong turns or the like; it’s unfailing. So if God were to give us our morality it seems it would be absolutely reliable. But that’s not what we see; pose a moral dilemma to twenty people and you’ll likely get that many different answers. That doesn’t seem like the way I was taught that God works. Particularly when so much is riding on it: get it wrong and you risk God’s wrath. Seems like something that important would be designed to work exactly the same for all of us.

So the bottom line here: if morality comes from God and we’re hard wired for it, then it seems like he did a pretty poor job of it, because we wrestle with it so much. That in itself should tells us it’s not a God-given, inherent process.

But wait! What about free will? Maybe God DID give us morality, but combine that with free will and presto! We have what we see around us: struggling with morality and moral dilemmas. That’s not really an answer however; that’s another blog entry. Stay tuned.