On the journey to create the perfect world I was left with one major question that most fear. Where does our morality derive from? This question is so important because it creates the foundation for our civilization. It determines what we value and our driving purpose for existence. Through my study of politics I was provided many answers to this question, but only one was valid.
Really politics is a subset of philosophy which is itself a subset of religious thought (I will likely discuss this further in future). However, as we extend each form of thinking – we begin to further enter into subjective opinions. Any of these modern political systems are basically determined by who wields the most power.
I listened to a debate with Andrew Wilson a long time ago where he rejects the idea ‘might makes right’ but instead supports the term ‘might makes’. The strength of might has caused many atrocities in the past, despite being morally wrong it is almost inevitable that the more powerful force will be victorious. This is essentially how all political structures are wielded.
Ideally, Liberalism frames the answer to morality as the will of the majority. Consider democracy decides to legalize murder, than murder is viewed as acceptable. Some idiot will quote me the harm principle, but that is really irrelevant. They fight wars and murder based on the democratic values that the majority allows such a thing.
Communism frames the answer to morality as improving the living standards of the working class. Consider the living standards of the poor is improved, they can justify butchering the rich bourgeoisie. Even if they are innocent of crimes and morally good, they’re class status inevitably makes them the villain that we can commit heinous acts against.
Fascism frames the answer to morality as promotion of the identity, specifically in ethnic and national terms. In this framing they can justify many atrocities against what is viewed as the foreign. They can also promote ethnic and national values that are morally negative to their own population.
I’m showing you that Liberalism, Communism, Fascism and practically every other political system’s very nature is one that is morally subjective. It of course is determined by who is wielding power and how they do so. This essentially makes morality meaningless. And consider morality is meaningless than we are left without purpose and values, it is chaos.
So I began to seek objective morality and the answer became clear. Consider man is not equipped; then we need an external force to do so. That external force is of course God. Only the almighty can give us an unwavering moral compass. Realizing this was a major awakening that has led me back home.
I discussed this idea with a theologian I respect and he queried the different interpretations of biblical law. Now I accept that these variations exist, but they are based on the same truth. We are provided an objective moral compass; however some of us can’t read compasses properly. It also lessens the massive variations that exist without it, without God we can’t even comprehend or agree on where morality comes from.
Many of the disagreements in interpretation are relatively minor and relate more to external human influences and ceremonial practices rather than the moral code. For instance the protestant and catholic conflict is one of the largest divides in Christianity. And it has more to do with which humans receive authority from God, rather than different interpretations of the actual described laws in the bible.
At first this was merely an acceptance of God as the greatest moral code, however I’ve come to further realize that this is evidence of his existence. We are lying to ourselves when we ignore our morality, and we are lying to God for it is an extension of him.
Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)
‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’
