Christians: What makes a person's moral judgments correct or incorrect?

Question

Let's suppose Bob makes a moral judgment that you would argue is incorrect - What caused Bob to be 'wrong' and you to be 'right'? Why is Bob less fortunate than you (if you believe that making wrong moral judgments is disadvantageous to his spiritual wellbeing)? It's not good enough to just say 'free will' - I want to know why Bob's free will caused him to be wrong and your free will caused you to be right.

Please think before you answer...

Suzanne: So why is one person's understanding better than another's? Presumably they didn't *choose* to be that way, so why is one person disadvantaged and the other not? Did your god decide who would get the biggest handicaps and who would get the silver spoon?

Answer 1

..something to think about....

Answer 2

From a Christian perspective, morals come from God, not from people. If another person disagrees with you, or thinks that you are bad, who cares? He is nobody, and his opinions mean squat. The only opinion that matters is the opinion of God. Jesus taught that we were to seek the praise of God, not the praise of man. Hence the origins of the phrase, "What would Jesus do?"

Having said that, usually a Christian goes through a four step process to determine if an action is moral:

1) Is it expressly forbidden, or expressly permitted, by Biblical scripture? If so, then the answer is clear. No one can argue with God. If God thinks that what you are doing is right, then who am I to judge God?

2) Is it in accordance with, or conversely does it violate, some general Biblical principle? (Like, playing loud music at 2 AM might violate the command to "love thy neighbor"). I am not allowed to do anything that might harm another person's faith, unnecessarily hurt their feelings or their body, or unduly inconvenience anyone if I can help it. On the other hand, I have a standing obligation to help anyone in need if I can.

3) Will it bring about the greater good? Sometimes there is no good choice, so I have to choose the lesser of two evils.

4) Am I unsure if what I am about to do is moral or not? I cannot be cavalier about this. If I am unsure, then I cannot do anything until I am reasonably sure. God cares about my motives as much as he does my actions.

Answer 3

If Bob doesn't believe the way I believe then there will never be an agreement on most things anyway. My actions are based on my beliefs as well as his would be I'm sure. If there was a topic that we disagreed upon and I use, let's say the bible, to verify what I believe. If Bob doesn't believe in the bible, then there's a problem from the start. It's all about what you believe. I'm not going to tell Bob, oh no, you're wrong. I will say, the word of God says....

Answer 4

Moral judgement is like math. It's objective. Everyone agrees that it's objective otherwise we would have no concept of justice at all. Saying that morality is subjective or relative to the person doing the action would make the concept of a prison system unreasonable.

You have to admitt people don't normally argue over what is right and what is wrong but rather the details of the case.

For instance, on the abortion issue.

EVERYONE considers murdering babies wrong. Thats solid moral of this issue. The question though isn't "is killing babies wrong?" it's "is a 3 week old fetus a baby?"

If you really think about any "moral issue" it all comes down to the definitions and details, not whether the overall theme is right or wrong.

Answer 5

It is true that moral judgement can either be right or wrong
Remember when Jesus asked some of his apostles, Who do men say that I am, some said Jeremiah, others said Elijah. One voice rang out the voice of Peter thou art the Christ, Son of the living God and Jesus for his part told Peter nor mere man has revealed this to you but my Father in heaven and I declare you rock and upon this rock I shall Build my Church And the gates of hell shall never prevail against it, Jesus grafted himself into Peter. Peter was given the keys of authority with respect to faith and morals. How did the others form their opinions? From what was being said at the time, from some other mans opinion it doesn't matter for they were wrong. The first Pope got it right. A moral decision from your practical will based on your conscience
Decision can be made this way as long as your conscience is well formed. How do you form your conscience? To the truth who is God, to the Holy Catholic Church which recognizes Christ. You cannot rely on the just the bible but on the authoritative teachings of the Church, the authentic interpreter of scripture, there is no personal interpretation of the scriptures because your opinions can be wrong.

Answer 6

Conscience in the computer memory inside our body, taking help of which we major our moral values. What ever feeding is given in it during our childhood days, it reacts accordingly. Whatever has been incorporated in our inner mind since the childhood and whatever our superiors have made us understand regarding sins and virtues, our computerized conscience reacts accordingly. And, according to that only the moral character of an individual is made. When we send the decision to the conscience it responds according to the memory fed in it whether the decision is the bad one or a good one.

The meaning is – our conscience is fabricated or been incorporated to us. The scene of slaying of a goat slitting through its neck does not have any impact on a Muslim, where as the same scene is a heinous act for a Jaini.

The concept of sins or virtues is different for a Jaini than that of a Muslim, when both are human beings. Thus, this dual measurement system is created only by us. A baby born and brought up in wild without any mentor can do anything with least hesitation. For him every act is legal according to the need of his body. By over imposing the sense of sins-virtues on human being, we have made his life difficult. In the name of ‘moral discipline’, we have forcibly gained control over his elementary wishes and over his mentality. We made him understand so much about sins-virtues that the restriction imposed on him has made him scared of fulfilling even his basic needs. Scared, he is getting away from the pleasure of life. Man cannot get deep into love. Everything gets grounded with fear. Some saint or god come in between a loving couple. The calculation starts taking place. For the fear of getting ill health, they don’t get themselves involved properly. And, this incomplete ‘love making’ results in a mental depression. A healthy sex is the cause of your birth, is the cause of your mental development. But, we always think the opposite. The sheet of ‘guilty consciousness’ gets covered on the ‘life giving’ factor (strength). And, a man becomes ill tempered or frustrated.

Sex is the only way for a man to get into deep of concentration. Through the medium you are born, the same will take you out or the boundary of birth-death. It is a tedious task to achieve ‘thoughtless stage’ by means of any other act. Rather than dying with reluctance, it is better to give a ‘different point of view’ to the life. Give the joy to others and keep yourself in joy. Every act in this world is legal if comes under basic requirements and, if it exceeds the requirement level the same thing or act becomes the cause of miseries.

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Answer 7

It all comes down to the intentions of the individual. Are they looking out for the well-being of someone else? Is anyone else being harmed in the process?

N3WJ did you know that in the old testament god sanctions the killing of men,women and children? So according to you it would be OK for me to do that because it says so in the bible. The question specifically said "think before you answer."

EDIT- Also I wanted to comment on the fact that many people say that morals come from god,or that god decides what is good. That is false, if god came down now and told you to kill your children, hopefully you would decline. Or at least you would question whether the being was truly god. Why? Because first we know what GOOD is then we judge whether or not its from god. Its not "Its good because god desires it" its "God desires it because its good."

Answer 8

What Bob does is between him and God.

My Moral judgments are based on the 10 Commandments.

I would not waste time arguing with Bob.

If he wanted to discuss it, that would be fine. But I would use the 10 Commandments to frame the discussion.

Faith is a personal thing, you cannot force yours on anyone, you can give it to them though!

Peace!

Answer 9

Rightness is in the eye of the beholder. Morales come from learning. My parents taught me hitting was bad...thus you shouldn't hit people. It's a society clash thing. I mean I've read about fundamentalist Christians letting their kids die, because they thought prayer alone could save them...when a doctor is saying the kid needs this operation or they'll die. I believe that there are common human rights and thus morales...like try not to harm others. After that, whatever society your from starts forming your opinions and rules of engagement. I had a hard-core-christian tell me that I wasn't going to heaven if I continued on my life path...I turned and said "Yup, you're right,...I'm not going to YOUR heaven."

Answer 10

the wrongness, or righteousness is more than just opinion as i thought not to long ago. The person that is accusing Bob, might be wrong. The bible is what i would depend on. God is always right.

Answer 11

We are all human. Whatever moral code each of us follows, our behavior is only as good as: 1) our understanding of what is expected of us; and 2) our ability to willfully follow what we know is right.

Bob could be wrong because he didn't understand what he was doing; I could also be wrong because I don't understand that Bob is right. Alternatively, Bob could be wrong because he knew what was right, but refused to do it.

Peace.