This is another response to an atheist. He believes that morality is essentially based on feelings of empathy.
-Charles Martin Cosgriff
Why, my friend, I'm glad we could find some common ground. I agree that humans are intuitive (the Ten Commandments are written on our hearts), but not that morality is about empathy and compassion. For empathy and compassion are mere feelings, and we know that feelings can and do mislead. Alone, feelings may indeed inspire good moral action. Yet they may well lead to bad moral action: it goes without saying that anger can cause much grief. We must judge our feelings as to whether they are for well or for ill. We must look upon them logically, acting upon them only when it is clear that they are properly driven.
But by whose logic do we declare our feelings right or wrong, then? That's where we disagree. For Right Reason, objective morality, the Natural Law, indeed common sense, all of which are the names of one essential reality, is beyond any one person. It is beyond us and we must seek it in order to act within it.
That, in part, is where God comes in. For God is Right Reason, He is that objective morality. He is the Natural Law and the spiritual embodiment of common sense. Without such a guide, even empathy and compassion may effectively lie to us. We may end up feeling compassion for the wrong person, cause, or reason. We must have a way to judge our feelings or they may do us a disservice rather than being a correct impetus to action.
Human action alone is sterile. Yet in concert with the Divine, it is a power above all other strengths. When we accept that, we become good people.
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2 comments:
So all Christians... actually, all theists, agree on all moral principles, and on all moral actions? They must do, if they have access to a divine source of perfect moral judgement. Well I never knew that. I honestly thought people disagreed about stuff like that all the time. Guess I was wrong, then?
Britt: Most folks do in fact have a basic agreement on most moral issues. What you are addressing are the variations which come naturally through imperfect human ability. The objective moral code is out there but we too often interpret it poorly due to a variety of reasons: genuine confusion, simply not caring, or downright evil for example. But the fact that people disagree does not mean there is no one set of morals. It just means we fail to fully grasp it for whatever reason.
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