On Morality

Morality is what we do without laws.

Morality is what we do when no one but ourselves and our Higher Power knows. Morality does not require a belief in a Higher Power only a firm belief in what we deem right or wrong. If we base our action only on governmental laws or religious creeds, we are living by someone else’s definition of right and wrong. To progress, we must understand our own concepts of right and wrong and then try our best to live to those concepts regardless of the situation.

Morality must be internalized not fixed by external laws. There must be some things we would not or could not do even if laws allow them. Can we be truly spiritual if our actions are only controlled or governed by governmental, religious, or societal laws?

This also means that if some laws prohibit what we believe to be right, we must not abide by those laws even at the risk of our life. This doesn’t mean we should plot the overthrow of that government only that we must answer to a Higher Power. However, if your Higher Power is suggesting murder and mayhem, you are listening to a part of yourself rather than to a Higher Power.

If laws only limit our pleasure, we should abide by those laws. But if laws prohibit the practice of our religious beliefs, we must peacefully disobey those laws, not necessarily openly unless that is what we feel needs to be done. History is replete with names of troublemakers and rebels that have become today’s examples and saints.

If we appear to conform by our public lives, regardless of our private lives, we are being unfaithful to ourselves and to our concept of a Higher Power. Of course, this is easy for me to say today, I wonder what I would have said, or might have done a few hundred years ago?

Morality is universal but its results are not. The results of morality vary, depending on our environment and our society. What is moral in one culture is not necessarily moral in another culture. It is for this reason that morality must be based on the individual’s growth and the culture in which he or she resides. Just as laws vary from country to country and from culture to culture so does morality. So, we dare not judge someone as moral or immoral before we understand that person. In the final analysis, morality is a personal judgment and an individual practice.

Author: Don Miller
Posted: Sept. 2002

Email the Author Send a Response

2002 Articles

2002 Articles Home

On Obsession
Harry P. Movie
Priests & The Law
On The Parties
Greatest Invention
Artificial Minds
On Religion II
On Religion
On Oneness
On Morality
Letter To Friend
On Karma
Religious Freedom
On Rituals
On Masters
On Magic
On Society
On Reparations
On Profiling