Philosophy is never far from me. I feel it has been repressed by busyness recently, as have my posts. However, just because I have no time to discuss or write about my thoughts, does not mean I am not having them. As of late, I have been thinking of morality.
I find it interesting how morality changes and molds. We, as westerners, are used to the Judeo Christian sense of morality. We have "The Law." And it guides our own laws. Some moral laws are not governmental laws, and yet, they are known. When Jesus came, he did not institute, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." But he did bring it up, mention it, live it out in his own life, and then command us to do the same.
Somehow we didn't. This is what I find interesting. If you read the Bible, certain practices common to the times had become repugnant to the Jews, even in the era before Christ. I speak mostly of Human Sacrifice, but also of the concept of temple prostitutes. The linking of murder and prostitution to religion was a double offense, for any pagan practices were forbidden by the Jewish people as a whole.
When Christianity took over the Western world, a new order of laws and morality did not spring up. If anything, some of the old morality held its ground - war for power's sake, greed, prejudice, injustice. Pagan rituals went away, but to our 21st Century eyes, the world was still a Dark place.
Which is why I find it fascinating the strides that morality has taken in only the last two hundred years or so! The American concept - that "all men are created equal" set something new into motion. And yet, it was a Christian idea - to love each other means to treat each other with respect.
Other improvements that our Western society has seen has been the abolishment of slavery, women's rights, and the end of state sanctioned (and even societal) prejudice based on race.
All these changes seem, in my eyes (which may have been preconditioned by the society that made the changes mind you) to be completely fitting and wholesome. Part of the Christian ideal.
And yet, historically speaking, I see how hard it was for some of these ideals to come about. I hold certain ideas about sin - what is right and what is wrong. I have ideas about what is acceptable and is not. What is criminal and is humane. What is something I can participate in, and something I should fight against.
But the lessons of history teach me that my morality may be shaken. The improvements in morality I have observed seemed to tumble exponentially on top of each other, once put in place. And if the growth continues, I see a time where my morality will be outpaced. If you will - my morals will be old fashioned, cease to be morals, and instead will be backward, prejudiced thoughts.
All the changing and "growing" in morality makes me wonder how good and bad can really change. I am a Christian. The people who lived two, three, four hundred years ago were Christians. How did they reconcile the attrocities they committed to their faith? Did they even try, or were they just pretending? If morality of a society can change, then is the morality that I am dead certain exists, the morality that society may change for me, wrong?
There are certain universal truths to morality that span the boundaries of culture and religion. Murder. Wrong. But human sacrifice - has been known to be okay. The difference? Stealing. Wrong. But some will argue that those who are starving to death need what they take. Adultery. Wrong. But in our society new propoganda arises - "Some people made a mistake in marriage. Why should they be punished for their mistake with the shackles of fidelity?"
Am I glad that we had moral progress in the last few centuries? Of course! I hope that, even if I had lived in those cultures, I would have stood as a minority in my charity. But I can never be certain that I would have.
What I have been discovering more and more recently is that the world is not black and white: it is grey. I think I knew that growing up. However, even though the world is grey, people can, and should be black and white. What I mean is that, any action can be viewed as moral or immoral. Good or bad. A sin or not. However, as people, we don't get the right to examine the motives (unless a person is on trial) and determine if there was more good or more bad behind the action. Only God can do that.
But when we give into grey, then we allow ourselves to slip from white to black. If we hold on to white, we may be wrong, but at least it is a well-intentioned wrong. While grey may be well intentioned, it is losing its footing and sliding down a slope where it grows blacker and blacker. It's hard to be black and white - or white to use my analogy. And yet, I believe it's necessary.
So what's this white I speak of? What is the defined morality? Well, I would say the tenets of the Christian faith. Even these people argue over and try to find the grey in. The answer, I believe, is white, but even our best attempts to be white end up a little off-white, if you will. There will be no perfection on earth. But even so, we should not deliberately go around trying to find black to mix into our off-white to turn it grey.
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