Moral compass…

What we humans of the year 2022 call space, the ancient ancestors called the world without end. Also, the World, or Earth in English, is a ball of rock that has no end. Living in a town on some natural land where I can observe animals, I see that they have creative abilities but are far below the human level. I see signs of love, hate, and jealousy, but not morality. Humans make choices based on morality and even in the age of science, morals or lack of morals plays a part in what we do, or do not do. Groups of people, nations, religions, political parties, cults, and others claim superiority over each other. They all struggle with morality.

I look at the world today. Putin is using the huge Russian army to threaten the world. The Russians listen to his propaganda and believe that they are fighting for a moral cause. They fight to defend the motherland. The western business that owns western governments is setting up to take over their country. They die to protect their freedom, or so they think.

In the US, there is turmoil that could start a civil war over who is the rightful president. That is a moral issue. The evangelical churches believe that “Socialists” who stole the elections from a president that they worship threaten their freedom of religion. If the laws and constitution stand in the way, the moral thing to do is change the constitution. They want to stop separating Church and State. A dangerous move, in my opinion.

Here in Canada, we see a new breed of people. Mostly less educated folks who “educated” themselves through conspiracy theories on the internet, demanding an end to our democracy. They want to install a government that will not force them to do what they deem unjust regardless of elections, laws, and the majority’s opinion. If the government tries to protect the people from a deadly disease, the government must go. They claim moral authority to pick and choose laws they are willing to obey and damage the existing system in the process.

I can go through a list of countries where some group or another, even the military, fight for what they deem morality, to gain political power. Often, morality is used for gaining wealth or prestige. It is also used to remove people from powerful posts and destroy careers that took a lifetime to build. It seems as if humans are born with a gene for morality, but what is moral or not is still being debated.

We translate morality into religious beliefs or atheism, which became just another religion. Those who were traditionally tasked with teaching morality, mainstream religions, are found to be some of the major offenders against morality. In a few years, court cases accusing priests, teachers and other people of authority grew to alarming proportions.  

I have a book from the seventies that was used for training managers. It clearly states to touch subordinates and tell them what you appreciate. Now I heard a woman who is suing an Archbishop for harassment saying, “he touched me on the shoulder and I felt uncomfortable”. I personally always felt uncomfortable touching people but was trained to do so as part of the art of managing people. Somewhere morality changed while we were using it.

Now, morality is seeping into business. Self-driving vehicles are available and have fewer accidents than human-driven cars. We hold them back from production because we can’t agree on moral issues that would have to be programmed into the vehicle’s computers.

The war in Ukraine exposed another problem. Both warring armies are using unmanned drones and fighting robots. Mistakes are happening since there is no human pulling the trigger on the killing machines. You and I are voting on the issues as part of political parties' platforms. We have no idea what we are voting for, so we chose a political party with the most popular leader at the time. Look at how many people in the West are voting mainly to defeat Trudeau regardless of the issues governing the country. I am also guilty. I should join the leading party and vote for a leader of my choice.

My church took a public side in the proposed laws regarding euthanasia. As a human with many health issues, I prefer to have an escape hatch if the pain becomes unbearable, but I am voting with my group on issues of morality. I am a hypocrite, I know it, and still do it.

In the West, the moral code of humankind was developed from one book in two volumes. The Bible, Old and New Testament. The Old Testament talked about punishing people if they disobey or defame God and the New about forgiving, sharing, and sacrificing material things for a glorious reward. That reward was a promise of a “Kingdom” yet not available. Both books deal with morality in terms of helping the needy, sharing, and treating others as we wish to be treated. We can easily assume that the Heaven we strive for is the same world with ethics and morality, beating selfishness and cheating.

The Bible doesn’t mention abortions, euthanasia, or other political matters but is concerned about love, faith in God, and treatment of the less fortunate or those unable to win in the game of life.