Moral Relativity

               When I first started my blog, I was hesitant to write a second entry because I didn’t really have a specific focus or topic. Then I realized that most blogs are for people to rant and express their thoughts and emotions, so I have decided to rant on paper so as to express my thoughts on paper, or in this case ones and zeros.

                I watched the movie “Syrania” while visiting my parents (having both George Clooney and Matt Damon, it’s gotta be a good movie right…?) and although the movie is a bit confusing sometimes I think it illustrates a good point. After discussing the scary fact that oil companies have way too much money and power, and that governments have always been corrupt I began to ponder what motivates people to do such horrible things. My father once had a good friend in the CIA who ended up quitting because no one within the agency really cared about the right thing to do, it was merely self preservation and getting promoted that motivated people. I think it sad that our society is built upon a system in which the individual is always more concerned with him or herself.

                For example President Obama seemed to be the one with all the intelligence on Osama bin Laden, and he appeared to portray himself as the main element in the death of Osama bin Laden. Obviously he is a well informed man, but when it comes to IRS cover ups, he seems to be clueless. I apologize for getting political but I think we can see this behavior in both parties in all positions within the government (Iran-contra and Watergate to name a few so as to not seem to only to hate democrats). I think what made me fear the most is to think that my children will have to grow up in a society where the few people who take a stand to follow their belief system in doing what’s right really won’t get to a position where they can make changes. More often than not these people don’t receive promotions, don’t get elected, and often get taken advantage of. It makes me depressed to think that I might have children living in a world even worse than the one I grew up in.

                Now as I thought of the motivation for peoples actions, I began to think of what defines morals and what defines ethics. Often we hear about ethics in a business setting, and morals in a religious setting. Looking up the simple Google definition I found that they are pretty much the same thing. Morals being defined as: “A person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do” and ethics being defined as: “The moral correctness of specified conduct.” So I would really like to explore here what defines morals and ethics to the individual and why I think it’s ridiculous to imply that morals and ethics are an absolute truth.

                Take for example my having grown up in a Mormon home (I use the term Mormon so that people not familiar with the term LDS are not lost and confused). Alcohol is strictly prohibited. Naturally since we are taught that drinking alcohol is a sin, those who drink alcohol are sinners. Whenever I saw people drinking around me I couldn’t help but think slightly less of them since they were not following the moral code I was taught, they were obviously influenced by evil. I find it sad that we have that mindset, and that it is so easy to judge others' behavior that to them is perfectly normal. Obviously excessive drinking, alcoholism, and abuse are all not good (I think anyone could agree on that), but that is not my point. My point is that perhaps others may look upon Mormons as being inherently influenced by evil because they might do thinks that others view as against their principles. Polygamy for example was practiced by early Mormons, and only stopped to avoid problems with the US government. Many people within the religion still believe that polygamy will return and is an eternal principle. It is still practiced to a degree in that a widower can marry another woman for eternity, thus having in essence two wives in the eternal sense. In order for a widow to remarry she must cancel her eternal vows with her dead husband. Many view this as an evil immoral practice and it is just there to satisfy sexual desires. Now any Christian or Jew giving this argument (from my understanding polygamy is permitted according to some Muslims) I feel is silly to say any of that because they would in turn be calling many Old Testament prophets evil. I am also confused as to how incest got such a bad rep religiously. It’s obviously a bad idea to avoid inbreeding because, well, visit the south (that was a joke, please don't take that literally and be offended). But according to the Bible several Old Testament families married their siblings, and it was viewed as a righteous thing. If Adam and Eve were really the first two humans alive, who else was there to marry but your brother or sister?  

                But I digress, I have chosen some extreme examples that might make some people uncomfortable so let me use a simpler example. I have some Buddhist and Muslims classmates. I am always sensitive about not getting pork or beef pizza respectively when I’m around them so that they can partake. I personally feel good about catering to their beliefs because I know I would appreciate it if others catered to mine. But it occurred to me one day that perhaps the same way I felt about people drinking alcohol as a child might be the view that my Muslim classmates might have on me eating pork. Now I love bacon, it’s one of my favorite things ever and I don’t feel morally wrong with eating it, in fact it makes me happy. Now a Muslim could be judgmental of me eating my bacon and say I was influenced by evil and from their point of view in fact they’re right. But I’d hate to be a heathen just for my love of bacon, so to all you who religiously believe that consumption of alcohol is bad, please don’t look at those consuming it as heathens. In that respect you become a heathen for your gluttonous bacon consumption. As a side note, is gluttony really a sin…? I don’t think the Bible has any word for word commandment against it, but yet it seems to come up in a list of sins.

http://xkcd.com/103/

                Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say here is that morals and ethics are all relative. Many might argue that I’m just trying to justify an evil lifestyle, but I will tell you I’m not. My code of ethics is really above that of many people I know. And why is that, I’d like to believe it’s because I created it for myself and it makes me feel good. I think the problem with governments and religions that enforce ethics and morals either physically, emotionally, or psychologically is that the ethics are then not based upon a personal belief system. I know a lot of people that do things out of a fear of God, or repercussions of jail time. I feel that is why there is so much corruption in the government because there is no system of accountability, so people will do as much as they can until they fear penalties. I’ll admit, many times I do the same (who doesn’t). I’ve also heard the argument “if I’m not getting anything out of it, why would it be worth doing?” It’s no wonder customer service most places is so awful.

                I’d like to point out that I feel that saying that someone is a “good Christian” (as if to say he/she is good cause they’re a devout Christian) is really to me a pretty stupid thing. I’m pretty sure that Christianity is not what makes them good and honest, and if it is that frankly scares the shit out of me. To think that the only thing that motivates a person to be good is religious beliefs means that if somehow they decide to leave their religious beliefs, they in turn become a bad dishonest person. Now perhaps saying someone is Christ-like would be a better way of phrasing it, but my point is that religion does not make one good. I hate how atheists are looked upon by most religions and religious people. It seems that atheist often times is associated with the words immoral, evil, and dishonest. Just because they are Godless does not mean they are heartless. In fact an atheist with high moral standards I think potentially deserves a lot more respect than a religious person with high moral standards because an atheist does it purely from the heart. I’m not saying that all religious people are motivated by fear of repercussions in the afterlife, but I’m saying that many are. I don’t think it matters what you believe, it matters what you DO with your beliefs. After all, who hasn’t heard of or even know anyone who may have been sexually abused by a trusted religious leader. I feel too often society attempts to avoid the appearance of evil instead of concentrating on avoiding the evil itself.

                Anyways, so all of you don’t think I am an awful person I do think religion is a good thing, and brings hope to society. I just wish we didn’t need religion to motivate ourselves to become better people. If Jesus helps you get off the pipe I think that’s awesome, I just wish you could have avoided the pipe in the first place with or without Jesus.

What can we do then to motivate ourselves to become better people? I really think the best thing is to realize that we are not the center of the universe. One of the reasons why the middle ages were so dark is because Europeans couldn’t accept that the earth revolved around the sun. My understanding is that they thought “obviously God created humans, and we are the most important thing to God, so therefore the universe revolves around us”. That seems like a loaded statement (because it is), but I feel there’s a lot of truth to it. Science is humbling because it helps you realize how insignificant we are. After all, statistics would argue that there are other intelligent beings in the universe (whether humanoid or not I don’t know) and they may have the same egotistical complexes we do as well. If every person was to realize that they were not alone, and we all have to share in the joys and depressions of life that would be a great change in society.

Second, we have to apply this newly obtained knowledge. It makes me laugh that we are so proud of ourselves for thinking about doing the right thing and never doing it. Just the thought or fantasy of going to the nursing home on the weekends and visiting some lonely people makes us feel good, and because we already feel good thinking about it we don’t bother doing it. I’ll be the first to admit to being guilty of doing this. We need to understand that if everyone was doing what was in the best interest of everyone else, we as a society would in fact be caring about our own self interest. Now just imagine instead of just you (one person) caring about you, think of millions of people caring about you. I’d much rather give up my own self interest if I knew that everyone else was doing the same. So because I believe in this fantasy (as stupid as it is, and it probably won’t ever happen) I base my morals and ethics upon how I can make others happy. I do that in the hopes that maybe others that need some motivation might catch on. If we did that salesman wouldn’t coerce you into buying a car because they want the sale, they would go out of the way to find the right car for you and your budget. We could talk about religion openly, be more open minded about others thoughts and beliefs and I think we could all be more open to the possibility of changing our beliefs according to what we feel is best.

Finally, we have to continue this pattern of beliefs and behavior in the hopes that others might catch on. Even if others don’t participate in the joyous system of selflessness, one can’t just give up. That defeats the whole attitude of the thing. If one were to think “I’m not benefiting from this, I should quit”, they really didn’t get the big idea to begin with. You follow the golden rule works because you are becoming the OTHERS and not because YOU are getting special treatment (that’s badly worded I know, but just go with it). Anyways, the whole idea is that we can’t be discouraged because of what others define to be moral or just, we need to find our own definitions and respect others.

I know there are things like rape and murder which are completely unacceptable. If you tell me “well if ethics and morals are relative and I need to respect others morals and ethics, shouldn’t I respect someone who murders are rapes under their moral and ethical code?” I would just respond to that, “you’re an idiot”.

I guess to finish off, I’d probably just say that to me the most moral and ethical thing to do is to makes sure no one is uncomfortable, abused, or disrespected because of my actions. That’s my code I live by, and I hope that others would live by the same code. Many people obviously don’t, but if I want my posterity to grow up in a better world I owe it to them to be a good example.