Our culture has changed.
I don’t know if you knew that. But, life in the western world is drastically different from what it was 30+ years ago. Some of the changes have been good. We have made progress in a lot of ways. But some of the things that have been classified as progress are not.
Particularly our approach to morality.
We have made a drastic shift, the long range implications of which are extraordinarily dangerous.
What is the shift? It lies in where the authority of morality originates. In Bible-based, Christian worldview, the authority of morality is God and God alone. The only authority human beings have is based in our ability to understand and apply God’s written word to us in the Bible.
Where, in our current construct of ethics and morals, is the authority of morality? It is within human beings. No longer do we look to God as the moral authority. Instead, we have decided we know better. That, if there is a God, He exists only to blame bad things on and to beg for help in a crisis. But, who is God to tell me how to live my life?
What is the major problem with this shift? Well, there are a few.
First, human beings are always changing. At least in our ideas, as well as other ways. Can you imagine building an ideology around something that is constantly changing? If I were to base my morality on my own life, we would be sunk as a culture. Not only have I made mistakes, but as my understanding of truth has grown, so has my understanding of how live according to that truth. If I built an ideology around what I believed 20 years ago, it would have been entirely different than what I would build today, which would be different from 20 years from now. If I don’t have enough perspective to construct an ideology that is big enough to last for my whole life, how can I build an ideology that is big enough for the lives of the rest of society?
Second, it’s easy for charismatic leaders to manipulate followers. If morality is based on popular opinion, then morality will be decided by whoever controls popular opinion. Who controls popular opinion? Those with enough charisma to be in the front of the room. Somes this is not the case. But most of the time it is. We don’t listen to people without it. And we give too much credit to those who possess it. Charisma does not equal wise or insightful. It simply means they have the ability to get and keep your attention. How many disasters have, at their foundation, a charismatic leader who had a flawed ideology?
Third, there is no objective way to decide between two conflicting points of view. What happens when what I think is right collides with what you think is right? What happens when what I think is wrong collides with what you think is wrong? What happens when what I think is wrong collides with what you think is right? If there is no authority outside the situation, who gets to decided who is right?
Fourth, there is no accountability. When morality is based on what is right for me, there is no way to impose consequences for actions that you have decided are wrong. Just because it’s wrong for you, doesn’t mean it’s wrong for me. Even if it affects you negatively, I have no obligation to be concerned with how my morality affects your life. You cannot hold me to your standard, neither can I hold you to mine. Therefore, if my right affects your right negatively, my only obligation is to my own rightness.
Fifth, the complete devaluing of human life. Ironically, in our pursuit of serving our own humanity, in the end we destroy it. How? There is no inherent dignity in human life anymore. The value of human life is based on what it does for me. If human life gets the way of my way of life, it must be removed or belittled. My life is important, but the importance of your life is based solely on whether your life helps or hinders my life. If your life hinders my own, the value of my own life surpasses the value of yours. Therefore, your life must become subservient to mine.
Myth: We can build a better society by deciding, as a society, what is right and wrong. Why is this a myth? Let me ask this: have you ever been around someone who has a really dominating personality, but had some really bad ideology? I have. And I know that it can be quite a challenge to reign in their dominating personality at times. And, because of their personality, they have tremendous opportunity to take people with them into bad ideology.
Who do you think will have the most influence in morality decided by society? Will it be the humble and wise person who doesn’t speak up or will it be the loud and unwise person who has a charismatic personality? Every form of government I can think of, even those in science fiction TV shows hundred if not thousands of years in the future, can all be manipulated by a strong personality.
What is the alternative?
The alternative is an authority outside our current situation. Just like a judge and a jury are supposed to be unbiased in court, there needs to be an authority that is outside the current situation, so as to offer and unbiased solution.
Before we go on, I want to speak to what you’re probably thinking. Can’t judges and juries be a moral authority because they are removed from situations? The truthful and honest answer to that question is, no. Judges and juries are human beings. They too are affected by the ideology of others. If they weren’t, their rulings would never change. There would be no bias, and they would always make the right decision.
This is why authority must come from the outside. This is why we don’t get to decide what is right and wrong. We don’t have the perspective to be able to see far enough down the road how what we are deciding today will affect those who have to live by it tomorrow. And we don’t have the unbiased ability to decide what the true right thing is, because we will always be biased towards what benefits us the best, personally, first.
This is why we need to go to the one who built the operating system. Imagine the operating system of the world is Apple’s iOS. And imagine each of us are apps on an iphone. Now imagine that an app decided that the iOS is wrong, so it decided that it wasn’t going to abide by the rules of the operating system. Not only that, but it was going to start telling the other apps that iOS is wrong and that each app gets to decide what is right. Then, they all decide to tell iOS how iOS is wrong and what iOS needs to do to adapt to each apps belief of what is right.
This is absurd right? Why? Because it defies logic. An app on a phone is subservient to the operating system of the phone. A program on a computer is subservient to the operating system of the computer. A falling apple is subservient to the law of gravity. A thrown football is subservient to the laws of physics. Everything in a system is subservient to the creator of the system. Even the iOS is subservient to the creator of the iOS.
God made the system we live in. He built the operating system. We play a part in the way things operate, but we didn’t create the system. Nor can we decide to change it. Only one being gets to make that decision, and that is God. I can decide that I don’t like gravity, and that I don’t want it to exist anymore. “Gravity is no longer true!” I shout to the world around me. I may even be able to get some people to believe me. But my belief in gravity does not change the veracity of its existence. My belief in God does not change the veracity of His existence. My belief in the system He created does not change the veracity of the system. Just because I don’t think truth is absolute, does not mean it isn’t. I may choose to break the rules, but that does not release me from the consequences of breaking them.
I can say an apple is an axe. But, that doesn’t mean I’ll be chopping down the apple tree with my “axe”. Calling a computer an apple does not mean I can make a pie out of it. An apple is an apple. A computer is a computer. An axe is an axe. A tree is a tree. God is God. God’s truth is truth. It does not require my belief in it to be truth, it still is, whether I believe it or not.
