Why Be Moral

            I was browsing through some websites when I found an article on morals. They asked why we should be moral. Then, they listed six basic reasons why we should be moral and refuted it. For some reason, they think that they have disproved one of the arguments for the existence of God when they wrote it. I really have no idea why they have pride in themselves, but this question, "Why be moral?" will back fire on them.

First, everyone agrees that there is a conscience. There is an interior voice that fills us with certain responsibilities that we ought to do certain things. Now, the question is, "Why would we ask why we should be moral?" It is because their conscience tells them something they ought to do; yet they would not listen to it. They would rather ask, "Why should I do this?" because they cannot fulfill what their conscience says.

For example, a boy is walking down the rode, and he sees a man helpless. He knows to help him is the right thing to do, but he asks, "Why should I do it if there is no reason to?" The question isn't really reasonable, but an excuse. It is a refusal of the revelation of the conscience. One doesn't ask, "Why should we learn the multiplication table?" if he knows he can do it. He would say such a thing because he is having a hard time studying it. 

Second, they cannot refute regression. Why would we regret something that we have not done? If we have done something wrong, we will try to prevent it from happening again because we do not like that feeling we get. The person who does not study his multiplication table will regret it when he fails his exam. Then, there are two solutions to his regression. One is to study, and the other is to ask what the purpose is for doing so. He is more likely to pick the former unless he has failed many times. If a person keeps on failing, he will likely go with the latter. Since they cannot do the right thing, they will give up and refuse to do what his conscience says. When this happens, they will base their judgments upon their feelings. They will deny their conscience and follow Jean Jacques Rousseau's philosophy of "Don't think, it hurts; just feel."

Now, to refute this, someone might ask, "Why not follow Rousseau's philosophy?" The answer is that he has already refused to do the right thing by denying what his conscience tells him. That is why he would ask such a thing.

Third, they have not refuted why we love. A drunkard doesn't stop drinking for no reason. It has to be an outside force to make him go to another direction. If the drunkard is a married person, he knows that it is killing his marriage because he knows his wife is upset and disappointed at it. Who would argue that the husband should forget about the marriage and just live happily with his alcohol? When we love, we give ourselves to the person. This means self-sacrifice.

Now, why would people do such a thing? Why would we even try? A person who does not love, but perverts it by having sex every day would find this a problem. He will find this monotonous instead. When he gets monotonous, he will try to get something out of sex that will give him more "kicks". I believe we all know that he will not find that "kick" and so therefore, his philosophy of "Don't love, just feel" will back fire on him. We know there is a better thing and a right thing.

As I have mentioned before, there are things that we really ought to do. One example is music. We hear a kind of music, and we like it immediately. We hear its beat and tempo and know that this is the music we like. We don't know why we like it, but we just do. Now, a person who would refuse to listen to the right music will become very saddened and will likely have a terrible life. This is exactly what will happen to a person who does not know how to love because he has rejected what his conscience says.

We now have to examine why our conscience says this. In order for our conscience to tell us what we ought to do, there has to be a subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is basically a temptation. There are two kinds of temptations. One is telling us what we literally should not do. We should not steal because we know it's wrong. Another is telling us what we should do. We should help out one another because we know it is the right thing to do. Both will come up to our conscience and the conscience will tell us that we should ought to do what is not right and what is right. Who will refute this argument? Everyone had an experience of this. The problem is why it happens. I believe that is what they should try to answer, instead of answering why we should be moral.

JMJ

Apolonio Latar