Wednesday, March 11, 2009

And the winner is...

Disclaimer: these are just some thoughts I have been having on this topic. It's not meant to be my final draft.....

I have concluded that morality is relative. Morality can be absolute in some ways; the Golden Rule springs to mind. However, to take an example, one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible is "Thou shalt not kill." I suppose many of us take this on faith, that it is wrong to kill. Yet we eat dead animals that have been killed on our behalf. Yet we squish a spider or an ant or a fruit fly without a second thought. The Bible doesn't say "Thou shalt not kill, except when it's okay to kill." So, if morality were absolute, we all would live as vegans with many mosquito bites. We who do not live as vegans with many mosquito bites, who wear leather shoes and sit on wooden chairs, are not behaving immorally. We are living by the standards of our societies. Some may believe we are wrong, yet we do not believe we are wrong. I guess it comes down to whether morality is subjective or objective.
There's more to say, but I have to go to the eye doctor now!

1 comment:

Allison said...

but when I kill a spider I do think about it, I still do it but I think about it and realize it is there, on my conscience, ready for me on "judgement day". For me it is about priorities...not to say humans are priority #1 always but I do think that there is a heirarchy of living and if you can "speak" then man, you can make some of the rules....then again, look where that's gotten us environmentally????