Monday, January 17, 2011

Morality: Objective or subjective

The point of this blog is to discuss morality and is it subjective or objective. I shall be making this along from my own understanding of morality.

What is morality, for me it is avoiding actions that will directly or indirectly result in the pain, suffering, and humiliation of another person. I think that's a good definition of morality. It is straightforward, precise, and now you know what to think if you are thinking of morality. Most theists say that morality is objective, meaning its universal, applicable to all. They state that God is the source of morality, and without him, the world will be chaos. On the other hand, subjective morality is not applicable to all, not universal, it is only according to the perceiver. I want to examine these two sides to answer the question: Did Moral come from us or from God?

Many theists would say that God made morals for us to obey, and they are in the "holy book", free for all to read. The problem is, even without the bible, there are still problems in objective morality. One is, the Euthyphro dillema which states: is morally good actions commanded by God because it is morally good, or is it morally good because God commanded it. There are problems concerning God in both propositions. In the first proposition, God is not required because even God adheres to the objective moral. In the second proposition, it is still wrong because the bible contains so much abuse, hurt, humiliation, and suffering. And most Christians take the bible literally. So slavery, incest, killing people of other religion, genocide and other hideous crimes will be the norm if we take the bible literally. Problem is, theists would then say "do not take the bible literally". Okay, which part of the bible and which part to take seriously? Even theists themselves will argue about this. The point is, this kind of behavior is subjective, meaning it's from their own perspective.

On the other hand, subjective morality is where moral are based according to the perceiver. Granted, there are similarities among cultures but that is because of inter-cultural relationships, turning subjective morality to be the norm. Where, in the Ten Commandments does it say that you must not use violence to force an opposing party to sell to you his property at a price in which the seller is losing? But through laws passed, this type of business has been minimized. And that is the work of subjective morality, not objective. You must understand that there is no such thing as objective morality because everything we do is based on our own subjective reasoning: "If I do this, will I cause pain, suffering or humiliation in any way?" This kind of morality is the one we have, given to us by the evolution of cultures and norms. Buddhists, whose teaching came from an Indian prince, has way better morality than Yahweh, Allah, and even Jesus Christ

This is our truth, this is our reality. We should embrace it whole and strive to make the best of our lives. Morality is an option we should adhere to, not because it is demanded by God, but it will pave the way for progress and in progress, our sense of truth, self, sense and justice broadens

No comments:

Post a Comment