Morals

Morals are very interesting to think about. Morals are the principles we follow or at least want to follow. Morals are what guide people and are almost rules that they follow. I don't want to discuss in detail what morals are, or what moral code is right. I don't even want to suggest what morals you should follow. I want to talk a bit about morals and where they come from. Although morals are similar to rules, they aren't precisely the same thing. Rules are set by people for others to follow, morals are principles that people set for themselves. Many people would agree that it is good for someone to have a good moral standard, which is not the same as saying it is good for someone to follow rules. A person that has a high moral standard decides to mostly on their own, while a person that follows rules only does it because other people set it for them. This brings me to a question; where do morals come from? I think everyone would agree at least to some extent that everyone has morals. Where do these morals come from? I first thought about outside influences. It's logical to say that people get morals from other people who have morals. That makes sense. For example, a child may believe that it is wrong to steal because his parents told them stealing is wrong. Many people believe that stealing is wrong. Do we all believe this because someone else told us it was wrong to steal? Can people really influence us this much? I don't believe so. When we hear on the news that someone has been murdered, we are astonished. Does this come simply from the fact that others told us that this is bad? I heard a story from a lady who was hit by a drunk driver while in her car. The lady not only was injured, she was pregnant at the time. The audience with me gasped. Obviously the people there knew that this was a terrible event. Where does that sense of morality come from? I do not believe it comes simply from other peoples' influences. I think we inherently have morals. I believe we all have morals regardless of who we are or where we are. So where does this come from? Does it come with being human? Well perhaps. This explanation is not very satisfactory however. I believe that morals are one of the things that just can't really be explained looking just at people, similarly to how we can't explain why people love entertainment. I think we have to look at something greater than us to discover where morals come from. In C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity (a book I recommend), he says that the main reason he became Christian is because he believe our moral standard had to come from somewhere. I agree with him that our sense of morality cannot be explained except by something greater than ourselves.
-Smart