Morality requires that people suspend their primal and visceral responses to situations, but it does not require belief in a supernatural order or power. In fact, the threat of an afterlife filled with punishment does not lead to moral living. It might lead to the temporary sublimation of sinful desires, but those desires will emerge later, sometimes in more harmful ways, because the consciousness cannot sublimate them forever. Belief in a supernatural being can enhance one’s morality, but it is not necessary – and it cannot compel morality. Moral behaviors are a choice freely made, one way or the other.
There are some ethical mores that are universal, while there are some others that are culturally dependent on the context. (“The Law of Human Nature”). For example, virtually all cultures believe that murder is wrong. However, there are some cultures that sanction capital punishment as an appropriate response for murder, while other cultures do not believe that taking a life is ever appropriate, even as a judicial response to an immoral act. So while there seem to be some basic ethical principles that are universal, some of the refinements of those principles appear to vary from one culture to another (“Moral Relativism”). IN a way, the rule that we learned in kindergarten might be the most reliable tool for deciding whether an action is right or wrong – the Golden Rule, doing to others as we would have other people do to us. Following this principle ensures some reciprocity of morals and requires that there be some empathy in the ethical decision-making process. Without that empathy, morality is impossible, because it becomes a cold calculation rather than a considered reckoning of what is wrong and what is right.
Works Cited
“Moral Relativism.” Course reading.
“The Law of Human Nature.” Course reading.
