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Law of Right and Wrong
Something that intrigues me is the idea of right and wrong, or better stated the idea of morals and how we develop them. For some things, everybody’s idea of right and wrong is different. For example, one person could say it’s wrong to speed on the highway, and another person could say they see no wrong in speeding at all. However, for most things, everybody, with the exception of a few oddballs here and there, has the same sense of what is right and wrong. For example, don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t lie, and don’t do harm unto others.
Now, I’m not saying everybody acts out their lives according to what they know is right and wrong. How many times have we treated somebody in a way we wouldn’t like to be treated? We all cut people off on the freeways, however when someone does it to us they cross the line and step into the ‘wrong’ area. What I am saying is that all of us, every human on this planet, share a set of morals, a Law of Right and Wrong if you will, and I find that amazing.
What’s more amazing is that all of us know, or believe, that everyone else knows the Law of Right and Wrong. If not, why would we ever say to someone, “you can’t do that,” or “that’s mine, you can’t have that.” By saying those things, we are assuming they also know the Law of Right and Wrong, even if we have never met them before.
Why do I find this amazing?? Because if you think about it, it speaks loudly in favor of a God creating mankind, and in doing so instilling a sense of right and wrong, which we know about…yet have trouble obeying.
Humans all over the world and all through time, in every culture, whether it is Asian, Latin, American or Indian have had a sense of right and wrong, a moral code. This sets us apart from every other creature on the planet. Think about it…if someone cut you off you might want to rip his or her head off…but you don’t…because it’s wrong. However, would animals act the same??
C.S. Lewis talks about this in his book Mere Christianity. He brings up that some people say the idea of a Law of Right and Wrong is unsound because different civilizations and different ages have had quite different moralities. This is what he writes:
There have been differences between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own…I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well find a country where two and two makes five.
I find that interesting because many can say our parents, or elders teach us the concepts of right and wrong, and to an extent they would be right. I learned never to talk to strangers from my parents. However, to another extent they are wrong. If we needed to rely on our parents to develop a set of morals, how did every culture end up with a moral code, or a Law of Right and Wrong? Did every first parent meet somewhere and decide that we all needed a set of morals?? I doubt it.
It’s just something to think about.
