2014-10-21

The choice of right

Morality is fundamentally irreligious.

I don't mean that religious people can't be moral.  I simply mean that the basic fundamental of morality has nothing to do with religion.

It is, in fact, entirely aesthetic.

Many people like to go on about their reasoning or rationale for various moral choices - whether religious or not: there's a major topic in atheism about building a rational morality.  But all of these systems come down, at one point or another, to considering life to have value.

And therein lies the sleight of mind that most people miss.

If you think life is valuable or important because your god says so, with no personal involvement, you aren't really moral - you're obedient.  You've made no personal decision about right and wrong and merely follow orders.

Even in that situation, though, I know of no active religion that doesn't have some element of self-determination - of freedom of choice - within it.  And if there is choice, then there is the ability of the individual to decide whether or not to follow the dictates of the religion.  What's the basis of that choice?  Why does someone choose to follow the rules vs. disobeying them?

It's an aesthetic decision: an expression of personal taste or preference.  It's not justifiable in any way, no more than preferring the color blue or the taste of chocolate.  That aesthetic decision is, really, the fundamental moral act for the religious.

For others (like atheists), the choice is a bit more direct: rather than adding the layer of choosing to value life (or not) because some deity does, they simply make the choice on their own.  Again, it's often couched in vague or loose terms, and rationalizations are often presented if not simply the assumption of self-evidence ("of course life is valuable; everyone knows that!").  But it's still, at its core, an aesthetic choice.

Once you've made that choice - or, if you're like me, and drill down a little deeper and make it there - you can use whatever framework of logic or reason to build up the rest of your morality.  Or, if you're religious, you just adopt the framework of a religion and can avoid spending much time analyzing the details (or do, if you feel like it).  One can build a rational or religious (or both) morality upon the basic aesthetic decision, but it's impossible to build either without that aesthetic decision.

If you believe that there is no such choice - that it is impossible to not choose to value life or whatever you see as the basis of morality - then you're back to mechanical obedience and morality cannot exist, whether it's obligatory obedience to a god or forced behavior due to physics and chemistry.