Is fear the true essence of
morality?
Understanding
the Ten Commandments is a risky business. If you understand this doctrine then
you know there are consequences for your sins. However, you only understand the
doctrine to be true if you believe them to be fact, hence you are relying on the
truth.
Are
these Commandments an absolute and is the true sense of morality hinge on them
to intrinsically right or absolute and do you believe this with a degree of
certainty? Get the picture as you doubt what the truth is and what certainty is.
Perhaps there is no absolute in believing in the Commandments.
I
believe the reason we try so hard to understand these Commandments is because
of fear. Fear that if they are absolute, you may suffer dire consequences on
Judgment Day. Is that a logical position to take or am I off base with my
logical deduction that I believe because I fear to be wrong?
Am
I motivated by self-gratification or selfish greed to go to heaven if I promise
to follow the Commandments? Am I motivated to submit to the fact that the
Commandments are absolute so I may receive what is a promised reward by going
to heaven?
How
does that impact my own morality and integrity with God or with myself? Am I cheating
myself by lying to myself? Is morality for those who believe and not for those
who don’t believe in the Commandments? Do I have to have religion to have
access to morality and if that is so, is morality limited to only the
believers?
Going
deeper into the morality issue, do I have to be a Christian or can I be a Jew,
a Muslim or Hindu to believe I am following these Commandments because I believe
them to be the truth? Deeper yet, do I have to be a Christian to be on high
moral ground or does it maintain balance and truth for other religions as well?
Am
I moral because I feel I have to be and if I have to be, am I moral? Does believing
make me more moral than others and how does that impact my own life believing
what others don’t.
Logic
tells me if I don’t have to believe then I am not moral and in essence my
morality is based on my fear that something may happen if I don’t believe in
the Commandments which are said to be the truth.
How
can I be moral is my actions are self-serving? What do I gain for believing
just to believe? I cannot be moral if there is nothing to gain and nothing to
fear for being that way. Do I need to gain to be moral and isn’t that a
violation of the Commandments.
So
I wonder and ponder an ethical dilemma in my heart. To believe or not believe
in the Commandments and all the other scriptures written and said to be the
truth. Should I agree that the essence of morality is doing something that is
right regardless of the collateral damage to myself?
Is the essence of morality doing right
regardless that I am seeking a self-reward? Thus the essence of morality is
based on your decision to decide which way to choose your life and ultimately,
either be dependent on the words you believe to be the truth or independently
gather the courage to decide and choose what you believe is right or moral
without fear. Either way, whichever you choose without fear must be the right
thing to do and creates your morality.
How
true is this?
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