by Draven

Created on: March 16, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

WHAT IS MORALITY?

Morality defined in the American Heritage Dictionary:

1. The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.
2. A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct: religious morality; Christian morality.
3. Virtuous conduct.
4. A rule or lesson in moral conduct.

Morality comes down to the standards of right or wrong that an individual, community, or society hold. The motives, actions, and outcomes involved with the decisions we make in everyday life create our individual and collective sense of morality.

MORAL STANDARDS: RELATIVE OR ABSOLUTE?

Right or wrong is in the eye of the beholder, and there is no such thing as a universal, absolute truth. A perfectly acceptable practice in one culture may be completely wrong elsewhere. Most religious doctrines likewise have "rules to live by" stated in their texts which become part (but not all) of the believer's sense of ethics and morality. Christian theism encourages followers to discard their former notions of morality and take on new ethics "on faith". Most theists still maintain most of their own judgment regarding what is ethical and what is not. This can be for the simple fact that the world is vastly complex and interconnected, and thus there are no rules which can be applied in all situations, including the Christian commandments. People also maintain their own judgment of morality because the doctrine is simply obsolete or absurd.

For instance, take this example in the Christian Bible (Deurotomy 13:6-10 NRSV):

"If anyone secretly entices you, even if it is your brother, your father's son or your mother's son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend saying, 'Let us go worship other gods,' whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God."

This is the Christian Bible telling followers to kill their friends and family who entice them to worship other gods. Most Christians do not hold this as right in their own sense of morality.

MOTIVES

Does the motivation behind an action shed light on its moral nature? Absolutely.

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