MORALS, VIRTUE, AND PERSONALITY
Posted
by
LeeMartini on
7/7/2011 9:23:06 PM
- Print This - Email
This
It is a monstrous thing that I will say to my extended family, but I will say it all the same. I find in many things that I write, restraint and order in my thoughts and opinions, they are not complete because I offer milk, not solid food because some cannot digest solid food. I am not trying to be condescending, for I do not descend to meet you as I am nothing, it is the universe around us that I speak, somehow feeble in my slight awareness, but offered as a possible tool for increasing your awareness. Some have this and others have that, I offer something different to you. Intelligence alone cannot explain the moral nature. Morality or virtue is part of the human personality. Moral intuition, the realization of duty, is a part of human mind. Man's mentality far transcends that of his animal cousins, but it is this moral nature that particularly distinguishes him from the animal world. (Mind you, this is not alone.) Yes, Man evolved from primitive specie over time with his surrounding world beside him, but it was Adam and Eve that were the first of their kind. They introduced a spiritual capacity in an animal that did not exist with one in prior times. I understand that this is diametrically opposed to the teachings of the church, but it can be supported by reason, logic and the Bible, not just an eisegesis!
Responses of an animal are basically limited to the motor level of behavior, yet the supposed insight of the higher level of animals on the food chain, and animals are tasty, are on a motor skill level and appear only after the experience of motor trial and error. However, man is able to exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual insight prior to exploration or experimentation. A person can look before it leaps and can therefore learn from looking as well as from leaping. One can discern moral or spiritual consideration of others before acting and basic reflection, an animal that is lacking a spiritual capacity ordinarily learns only by leaping. This simplistic example is not complete. As a result of experience an animal becomes able to examine the different ways of attaining a goal and to select an approach based on accumulated experience. However, a human can also examine the goal itself and pass judgment on its worth-while value in consideration of others, past or present. (There is the rub) Intelligence can discriminate as to the best means of obtaining something, but a moral being possesses an insight that allows him or her to discern between the old as well as new, spiritual and material so that all ends well, or ends up not being bad.
A moral being in choosing virtuous values does not have to be intelligent, morality is independent of intelligence. The person knows what they are doing, why they are doing it, where they are going, and how they will get there. When a person fails to discern in their life and overcome cognitively the biological and instinctive urges, they find themselves functioning on the animal level of existence. I believe society has a place for such an animal-like personality. Morality can never be advanced by law, you can pass laws, but you cannot pass morality. It’s a personal and freewill matter and must be used by the moral person. I feel that the execution of said manner is best among those who are less morally responsive. Does everyone have a moral capacity? I don’t know… Morality is righteousness, not mere knowledge. Does everyone have a spiritual capacity? I don’t know this either, but I perceive us as spiritual beings in a physical body. In the day by day life of mortal man, virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good rather than bad. Man's choosing between good and bad is influenced, not only by his moral capacity, but is also influenced by ignorance, a lack of self-discipline or having been misled. I could go on to other variations of this entertained thought, but this should suffice. I have investigated this thought after remembering what a good friend said to me back in High School, “What the Hell is morality anyways!” Well, it has been 20 plus years in the gestation process, but a form of realization has finally come to me. Morals are concerned with judgment of the good or bad of human acts arising from their consciousness, it is a psychological act rather than a physical one. Virtue in my opinion is the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. Everything we do is related to either sensation or awareness, the game of morals is in finding the other, given the upper, to find the under side… Lee
Comments
|
|
Romans 6
Our new life in Christ
So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it? Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life. If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his. This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore, because a person who has died has been freed from sin’s power. But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and he will never die again. Death no longer has power over him. He died to sin once and for all with his death, but he lives for God with his life.
In the same way, you also should consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
So then, don’t let sin rule your body, so that you do what it wants. Don’t offer parts of your body to sin, to be used as weapons to do wrong. Instead present yourselves to God as people who have been brought back to life from the dead, and offer all the parts of your body to God to be used as weapons to do right. Sin will have no power over you, because you aren’t under Law but under grace.
Freedom from sin
So what? Should we sin because we aren’t under Law but under grace? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, that you are slaves of the one whom you obey? That’s true whether you serve as slaves of sin, which leads to death, or as slaves of the kind of obedience that leads to righteousness. But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you gave wholehearted obedience to the teaching that was handed down to you, which provides a pattern. Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. (I’m speaking with ordinary metaphors because of your limitations.) Once, you offered the parts of your body to be used as slaves to impurity and to lawless behavior that leads to still more lawless behavior. Now, you should present the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness, which makes your lives holy. When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What consequences did you get from doing things that you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, you have the consequence of a holy life, and the outcome is eternal life. The wages that sin pays are death, but God’s gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ROMANS 6:1-23)
|
|
|
|
9/3/2011 2:13:55 PM
-
Ignited~Faith, Member of Delve into Jesus since 2/20/2008
|
If you have something you want to say about this piece of creative writing or to the author, please feel free to leave a comment here.
