Instinctive morality

Genesis 37 tells the story of Joseph’s brothers trying to get Joseph killed but, after being overridden by guilt, they sold him as a slave.

This account predates Moses and the Ten Commandments, yet the brothers knew that it was evil to murder their brother. How much might these basic instincts be motivated by belief in a God?

My first thought was mystery person. Let’s call that person MP. I remember watching the news and there were shootings in America. Don’t ask me which, there are far too many to be okay. I casually stated my point that it is immoral and unjust for anyone to just start randomly shooting and killing people, regardless of his/her personal situation. It is not at all humane. Name one aspect that was OK for anyone to walk in and start killing everyone in the room. This was when I was almost horrified at MP’s response. What I got from MP’s argument was that, “IF the person was mentality bonkers or psychotic or etc etc, what is stopping that person from just doing whatever he wants? He can’t think”. Fair point.

But surely there is still a soul somewhere in them that screams “LOOK AT THE CHILDREN YOU ARE KILLING”. Or surely there is something in them that stops them. The spirit of humanity, perhaps? Although MP has a fair point, I STILL do not think it is okay. To me, the first thing that MP did was defending an unjust action. That is always what MP is good at – trying to get me to see what “other” people, who are directly opposite of myself, think. I GET IT. I understand that there are going to be many perspectives and “views” that other people may have. But we as humans should CLEARLY draw a line between the right and wrong. Every time MP defends “other” (I hope it is other people’s views, as MP says, and not MP’s own) people’s views, beliefs or perspective, suddenly, everything’s in the grey area. Nothing is clearly black or white. I hate it.

MP is an atheist. There is no almighty god to MP, and nothing out there greater than mankind. MP does not believe in a god. When that happens, everything is in a grey area. Unlike us, MP does not have a holy spirit within us that can scream out “this is WRONG” and make us feel disgusted at some things we see or hear.

I know there are many amazing non-believer out there who acts like Christians. But a tiny part of them believes that something out there is greater than humankind… maybe that cosmic force or I dont know what… but something. It is this part of them that gives them the basic instinctive morals. After all, you don’t want to risk being in the something’s bad books.

Not believing is a scary thing. It leads you to dark and unwanted paths; it ALLOWS you to do so with any reasoning you like. Not believing is saying “there is nothing governing ME, my thoughts and my actions”. You may argue that that is what the Law is for. But I am here to tell you that the Law is broken everyday, every hour, every minute, every second in the world. If one day, someone decides to rock up, armed and ready to take a few lives, does Law jump in his/her face and say stop? Does Law govern his/her thoughts?

No. That’s what the holy spirit does. It’s an in-built alarm system in the body that helps us discern between the right and the wrong. And it is the holy spirit that guides us. It shuts down our thoughts once it lingers into this dark and unwanted path. Yes, there are many self-proclaimed Christians who might be capable of killing. But I am talking about having a deep relationship with Jesus and having an intimate connection with the holy spirit. That is another debate on its own.

For now, think about it. Are basic instinctive morals motivated by a belief in a god? Contrasting between me and MP, I dare say it’s a definite yes.