I partly agree with what you wrote. Men do have morals and it is his nature to be a good person. That is why many people don't feel right when doing evil things. They are acting against their nature and they feels that something is wrong. However that doesn't mean that all people can live by their morals. Many people do need something to guide them. Look around you, I am sure you can sense that from some people. Go back in time. Think about the times when surviving was only for the fittest.
The good thing about morale is that it is always one step ahead of us. So if you are a good man, listening to your morale makes you better and even better. What about a not so good man or a bad man – it has the same effect. If he listens to his morale, it will make him better, again better and so on. In effect, it will polish oneself. Hence, I believe morale can guide one. What greater message (individually tailored message), - can God give us.
Of course there are people with (or acts as if with) low morale. Will such people prefer to have such crimes done to them? NO. They too prefer a better world without crimes. But still crimes do happen. Who is the real/major culprit then? –
1) The person who has done the crime,
2) the crime itself,
3) or the circumstances?
The answer is it is the circumstances that are the real culprits. Their circumstances on how they are brought up which effects their thinking and their action.
Imagine a situation where a terrorist blow himself up in a market place. Was this a situation a single crime event? NO. A sequence of crimes had taken place one after the other that made him to blow up eventually. If he has undergone training for this – it was sinning. Brainwashing him; – sinning and so on.
This is what Abraham Lincoln told his wife and others as they spoke harshly about some sect of people who acted with low morale, - “Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances.”
Even carnivores animals like jackal, tiger, Lion etc has to be taught/trained to do acts of cruelty, otherwise they will tend to be peaceful which doesn’t go with their very survival. In fact I have seen a video on this. A Mother leopard training their cubs with a live rabbit; it didn’t kill the rabbit, but instead forced the cubs to kill it which the kids in the video were reluctant to. We have even seen many cases where animals who keep a prey-predator relationship in the natural world keep a harmonious relationship in captivity- simply because they weren’t trained to be cruel. So, if apex predators like these needs such training to be cruel; aren’t we inborn to be more peaceful?
So, give people a better living conditions, they will perform better. There is even a saying in my native language that translates to this “Love a kid – and he will love the world”. So how can people get better living conditions – it is only possible through a peaceful world where people are taught to value and listen to their free minds. High morale, creativity in arts, scientific progress etc, soon follows. (This doesn’t mean everything what they do is right, there will be misfits here and there, but eventually they will be right – that’s how even evolution works.)
Not all men live in a society where everything they want they can have it fair and square. There are parts of the world where the strong violates the weak and where the rich robes the poor. What is it that would stop these people from doing so?
They mainly can be three things.
1- Ethics of the society. What is acceptable and what is not.
2- Policies.
3- Religion.
What would you do when the first two are not there
As was told, Morale is always one step ahead of us, each and every of us. It polishes oneself.
Individually, each and every one of us needs security, justice etc that is why society forms and works. As ones morale polishes oneself, so is social justice; it gets polished, so is society; it gets polished, so is social laws; it gets polished.
(As you have said, religion can play here (and I too agree with this) – but religion has a major drawback, about which comes later.)
I still remember reading about a law that existed in a society in which slavery was accepted and legal.
If one rich man who owns a few slaves is found guilty of some crime, the justice would have ordered something like this “either you or your slave should get 10 lashes”. Hopefully, our morale has progressed and our society has progressed from these stages.
Now, let me come to the third part –Religion.
Most religion is often credited to an exceptional Person. They take people or society from dark ages and enlighten them. Unfortunately just like ordinary people these great ones also die. So laws that were made are kept as such. Not (never) to be changed at all. Often a “God part or holiness” is amended to it over time for a much greater voice. Then existing scientific proofs are added to give it more credibility. Money, power and politics take their share on it. Rituals and practices make it imprinted on those who practice it. This is how a typical religion is formed.
The problem with religion is that it resists change – not only because it is habitualized, but also out of fear; fear of the religious heads; fear of the God itself. This is where the problem is. The society around them progresses. But what about the religious sect – it is tied back to their old ages. Even if their morale is asking for a change, they won’t out of fear, out of the feeling that their holy books can never go wrong – after all it is god sent, how can it be wrong and they reasons and opt not to change.
(For this I am taking the example of the case with halal meat. Modern science has methods to kill an animal in the most humane way of killing the brain or making the animal unconscious with a shock and then butchering it. What about the animal that has to undergo halal butchering – it has to suffer much more pain. Back in those old days, it was the best possible method; drain as much blood as possible which ensures that the animal has been killed before it is butchered. But how can one accept it is the best method available now.) Similar is the case with slavery, child marriages.
Don't get my argument wrong, I am not saying that with no religion there are no ethics, neither I am saying that religion is all about making people behave better. I am only taking this argument the way you directed it to. .
Thanks, that is the way it has to be.
Saying that every person can live by his morals is wrong because in primitive societies when survival was for the fittest that surely hadn't been the case.
Yes, the little morale they had got polished itself and got better and that is why we keep much higher morals.
I agree to your general statement that men have morals. Islam even teaches that a person is good by his nature as I said in the beginning of my response. However, Islam take that morality to a completely different level. You don't even know and probably you don't trust me, but let me tell you that becoming a practicing muslim really did change me in everything especially in the morals aspect.
Yes, I do. If it changed you for the betterment of the society, what bigger proof do I need? I respect you and your religion for that. I personally know some very fine people who are deeply religious.
Morale is not everything. There are also some life aspects that one has to know. God didn't create us without having the answers to these life questions. Like why we are here and what really happens once we die.
I agreed. Such questions are there in my mind too. But I just can’t accept any particular religion has answer for this.
You gave me an example about the virus. Believe me friend, there was a time that I had my questions about Islam.
,
I think you have rightfully accepted ISLAM.
Hoping for a peaceful world.
Best regards.
