What is morality?

[EmethAlethia]

Morality is something every person believes in, as these things are written on our hearts.

Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

But here's the thing, from our perspective, we may believe we are "moral" but because we do not love truth, but instead love what we want to believe as truth, we see ourselves, and others and our responses and actions differently than what they would be if we truly did love truth more than what we want to believe. Everyone finds what they need to believe as they want:

2Th 2:10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Romans 1:18-32 covers that passage from the perspective of those who choose to be Atheists. Rom. 10:1-3 covers those who believe in a God but not in Christ, going to scripture for the purpose of justifying what they want to believe about God, and Mat chapter 7 covers those that believe Jesus is their Lord, God and Savior and are doing everything the true Christians of that day did, but will hear, "depart from Me ye who work iniquity ..."

The point being, if you do not receive a love to the truth so as to be saved, but love what you want to believe "as" truth instead, your sense of "morality", even understanding that you are worthy of death for practicing such things, will be completely tainted.

 

[stevevw]

I would like to gain more perspective on this topic, so please give me your thoughts about these questions. What is morality and how do you define it? Where does it come from? Does it matter?

For many I have read that morality is to do no harm to others. But then one can ask what does that 'harm' represent. This can be different for different people. This then brings in subjective morality and opens the door for morality to be arbitrary.

IMO despite people wanting to claim morality is subjective I think deep down in all of us there is a moral truth, like a law of physics. That moral law has to have a moral law giver which is God or you can call it a transcendent moral lawgiver if you want. But the lawgiver and moral law has to come from beyond humans. Humans are fallible and subject to many influences that can skew morality away from the truth through selfish motives and corruption.

If there is no moral truth then this opens the door for any version of moral truth being OK. That will create conflict and undermine any societies attempt to have a strong foundation to build order.

Moral truth is a lived reality because we all appeal to it in everyday life. Despite people claiming a certain subjective position on something when this is applied to living that moral we can’t help but experience the truth of that moral value. We react like there is moral truth even if that means contradicting our own subjective moral claims. We can't help it. Thats why people have a deep seated dislike for moral hypocracy. For moral hypocracy to exist means there has to be a an independent moral truth.

When someone claims someone is wrong they are not just claiming that for themselves but appealing to a greater truth that the person is really wrong. We will all intuitively react to certain wrongs we see in the same way regadless of who we are, what culture or religion we belong.

So moral truth is in all of us and God wrote his laws in our heart which we experience through our conscience. We can deny that truth or learn to live a lie but there will always be consequences. Some may appear to get away with breaking moral truths but it will catch up with them in some way, shape of form in the end.

 

[HeartNSoul19]

Morality is the spiritual compass in every person's heart that guides our being at a higher level than the mind alone could. It is the human tendency to seek to be its spirit.

 

[partinobodycular]

So moral truth is in all of us and God wrote his laws in our heart which we experience through our conscience.

I find it fascinating how in statements about God one can quite often substitute the word "evolution" for the word "God" and the statement makes just as much sense. Which leads me to think that the belief in God is simply the consequence of ignorance. That which people don't understand they attribute to God.

Why people feel the need to invoke God as an explanation for the things that they don't understand is perplexing, but one doesn't need God to explain the existence of morality. The theists' attempts to shoehorn Him into the discussion only serves to lessen their credibility.