Morality Quest Part 1

In my last blog, I wrote about how throughout human history we have attempted to redefine good and evil along lines that make our actions seem good.  I proposed that we do so because we are afraid to compare ourselves to the true moral standard of the real moral law as given by the real moral Lawgiver.  We are afraid to do so because we all fear that we do not measure up.  Over the next few blogs, I am going to lead a quest to find the moral law and the moral Lawgiver.  In the end, we will see how we all measure up.

Where to Look?

The first question we must consider is where to find the supreme moral law.  To figure that out, we must determine where morality comes from.  If it comes from mankind then our quest is nearly done.  If people made the supreme moral law, then people can change it.

This also would mean that morality is as real as governing laws.  Every governing law was made by people and can be changed by people when it is convenient or necessary to do so.  That which humanity makes, it may alter.

However this also would mean that morality is not universal.  It is relative to the people in power at any given time.  In fact, the ultimate moral lawgiver would be the person or group of people with the most power at any given moment.

Let’s think about what this would look like for a bit.  In Asia, for most of the 20^th century, the Soviet Union was the major power.  Millions were killed in the name of the state for purely political reasons.  In the 18^th and 19^th century in the United States it was legal for black people to be kept as slaves.  In ancient Rome, men were pitted against each other in battles to the death for the entertainment of the masses.  If good and evil are mere human constructs, then there was nothing wrong with any of these things.  We may look back on these horrific events and condemn them, but there is nothing to prevent others from looking back on us and denouncing, say, our love of personal freedom or the practice of recycling as evil.

Additionally, this theory does not conform to reality.  Those in power do not set morality.  Rather, morality tends to check power.  In fact, morality is a weakness from a purely secular perspective.  This is why so many governments try to redefine morality to their advantage.  The fact that such governments are seen as corrupt when they try to do so is evidence that morality does not find its origins in human power.

Morality must be something larger than a mere human construct.  We need to look beyond ourselves to find the true moral law.

Thus, the quest continues.