I've been thinking a lot about truth lately. More specifically, in the realms of science, culture, and morality – exploring how truth can be rationally determined.
At the same time, I've been trekking on a journey that has tested and expanded my conventional ways of cognitive processing, namely the incorporation of my emotions. That is not to say I have let my emotions to the wayside, rather, I have put them into proper balance where, in the past, they were hindrances or obstacles.
This endeavor began several years ago when I, after a healthy bit of introspection, began to realize the importance that my feelings and emotions played into my decision-making processes, my thoughts, and my resulting behaviors.
Through engagement of self-probing questions with no specific agenda or plan, I came across a pertinent question. Though I do not remember the question verbatim, the impact left its mark and subsequent direction and answer.
"What do you believe?" The question stimulated a series of questions along the same line of thought. "What are the foundational truths of your life" "Are these truths, in fact, true?“
These questions supremely affect human development in a comprehensive and absolute fashion.
Beliefs about many things are universally agreed upon, e.g. The sun is the source of Earth's light. Beliefs that have no objective measure are more similar to an opinion or a perspective, e.g. That movie was boring.
Beliefs and perspectives held by an individual will inevitably guide his or her actions, whether they are true or not. One could believe that Earth is the fourth planet from the sun. This would have no profound impact on life, unless one were an astronomer, for example. Likewise, someone could absolutely believe that a gallon of bleach was, in reality, a gallon of water. This is an example of a fundamentally more problematic belief that did not reflect reality.
These question took several divergent yet similar paths regarding the subjects of self, humanity, and meaning. I found these questions keenly able to bring to light issues that I never fully brought to my attention. These questions and there corresponding answers are usually inferred by many but never explicitly asked.
These are some of the questions that came about from my internal dialogue:
What do I believe about me? What need do my thoughts and actions try to fulfill?
What do I believe about humanity? What drives human behavior? What are the unseen "cogs" of the human-human interaction?
What is the meaning of existence?
It became clear to me that all these questions ultimately lead to the crux question, “What do I believe about God?” In the same way, every person either consciously or unconsciously makes assumptions about the nature and existence of God. Following from that answer, other issues might be answered in turn (morality, purpose, etc.).
The issue of morality is particularly of interest to me on account that I studied cross-cultural conflict resolution where morality and justice have differing beliefs.
The question I raised was, “Is there such an idea as objective morality, that is morality that is determined outside human existence?”
I'm going to go ahead and post and, hopefully, hear others thoughts on these matters.
Chris
4 hours ago
Of course there is an objective reality beyond human existence. The God who was always there has always been the righteous, moral being that He is. Whether we existed is beside the point. His standard and law that is written on our hearts is why we can talk about morality in the first place. And though there wasn't always a law, God has always been morally righteous in His character and has enjoyed that perfection of His. In that same vein, God has always hated immorality.
ReplyDeleteThe reason we can and do talk about such things is because We are made in His image. We are like God in some ways, and we're moral creatures because God is a moral being.
-Blake.