When was the last time you asked yourself: what is the moral code you live by? And if you wrote a list of the guidelines within that code, what would they be? Frequently we will trot out the golden rule that we should treat others as we want to be treated ourselves. But morality gets more complex than that. Expand from there and the guidelines we fall back on usually originate in Christianity or within other religions — be that Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism — even though we are an overwhelmingly secular society.
I’m asking this question about morals because in the absence of religion, and in a global free market economy, how we view morality and enforce it has become fraught and complex. Our idea of what or who is virtuous increasingly muddled; our moral compass often pointing in multiple directions. “Moses then led them to Mount Saini where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, as well as the other laws for right living.” It was simple back then. This is from St Paul to the Corinthians and the key phrase is ‘right living’. Except if there is no higher being — God or any other religious entity we trust in — judging what is ‘right living’ falls largely to society to self-police. Are we any good at it?
