Morality - Two Train Tracks

Being able to differentiate the good and evil behind the intentions or decisions made is what we have come to define as morality. Morality however as we have seen throughout the course of history is in fact subjective and varies from person to person. So what is morality? Can we choose what's right and what's wrong? Then would that not lead to chaos due to the difference in the opinions of individuals - each fighting for what he/she believes is right? The classic question based on a hypothetical story comes to mind; you are in control of a mechanism that allows you to switch the tracks on the railroad. You look up to see a train that clearly shows signs that it has lost its breaks. Down the line you see the tracks diverge into two; one where a few kids are playing and the other with workers trying to fix the track. Which track are you going to choose for the train to run into?

You're probably thinking 'use the damn horn on the train to warn them' but consider the fact that you do not know whether somebody is in control of the train or whether the horn still works. Now think about it again. 

There is really no right answer to the question so whichever track you have chosen is a clear indication of your morality. Who deserves to live? Killing either group would be immoral but your mind has chosen its moral ground. Now your choice is unique to you meaning your morality is subjective despite the fact that there are only two choices and so some of you will have the same choices. We also note that there are many factors that influence our stand on what is right and wrong.

This is why laws exist; to sort of bring about a unanimity among individuals - not necessarily in opinion but in actions and behaviour. Laws and rules reduce the difference in opinion and thus lessen the chaos that would otherwise exist if each were given the freedom to choose their own morality. Religion also goes a long way as to where we draw the line. We are told and shown what is right and wrong during our childhood and thus it sticks with us throughout life. So if drugs are illegal because they are bad, we will choose to believe so. But what about countries like the Netherlands where it is legal? Where do we draw the line? It is really up to the people to decide. Now what that means is not that individuals are allowed to decide, no. It is a collective group of individuals who share the same interests that decide what is right and wrong. Thus, governments come about and authorities are elected to run the country etc. The term majority wins fits perfectly well in recognizing what morality really is. Morality is a principle that distinguishes the good and bad based on the opinion of a collection of individuals who share the same thoughts and ideals. 

How Real is Our Reality

Look around you and try to describe the shape and colour of the objects that you see; describe it in English or your native tongue. When we try and describe these we realize two things;
1. Our language is limited in terms of describing reality
2. Perception blurs reality

Think about it, everything that you know to be real is just something that someone sometime in the past had found to be "true". An object being blue to someone could well be red to somebody else but they both call it blue because to the person who sees it as red has been fed the information that red is actually blue. It is what we learn during our childhood that we carry on with us. If I was taught that 2+2 is 5 and not 4 when I was young, I would still be believing that and state it as a fact. 1 was given a value by us, similarly every single word in the dictionary was given a meaning by us. Speaking in that sense, we have created our own reality.

If something that is created in somebody's mind is called imagination. Then is not reality on the borderline of imagination? This is one of the main crossroads science and religion come together on. We use science to try explain all that goes on around us while religion attributes it to the works of a higher being. I'm not trying to draw blood here but that is the fact...  No matter what you choose to believe in, the fact is that we are powerless when compared to the size of the universe; be it from a scientific or religious stand point. Yet we are the most intelligent species on this planet and we have categorized everything around us to help us understand what goes on around us.. We have created science and religion. If we had the power to create what defines us today, then does that not mean that we are after all powerful? We are powerless yet powerful, enough to deceive ourselves to the point that we think our imaginations have become facts and reality...

 Is the background of this page really black? Are you really reading this in English? How real is your reality?

Everything is in continuum

There are distinctions in whatever we see and do. From people to actions; we have either been taught these distinctions or have drawn the line at some point saying "Okay if this object has this characteristics then this must belong to a certain group" and so on. We have races, religion, gender, age and so much more dividing us all. But what we don't seem to realize is that these are merely distinctions that we as humans have created and have placed in society to stand apart from each other. If we look for scientific proof, the genes in our DNA suggest that we are very close in terms of our genes and how they are structured. Therefore there is a continuum within us despite the fact that we all seem different from one another.

When we take this principle and apply it to everything around us we see that it can be proven that everything is in continuum. Time is a perfect example to show this as it is always moving and never stopping, it is continuous. Movement of people is continuous because even if we stop while walking we are still moving due to the rotation and revolution of the Earth around its orbit. Our bodies are always pumping fluid in the form of blood or hormones etc and so they're always moving. Your daily business being dumped into the soil will serve as nutrients to plants one day that will then be eaten by animals and then eaten by you again and therefore there is a continuous cycle. Nothing ever stops. Take the two most distinct things or categories you know and you'll always find a link between them somewhere at some point in history. We are all connected and moving at all times. Ever since the Big Bang, nothing has ever ceased to exit. It is always converted to some form or the other that will exist in the world and universe as we know it. Even the distinction between living and dead is blurred; when exactly do we say a person is dead? There are so many answers to this. When the blood stops pumping from the heart? When the brain no longer functions? When the flow of fluids stop? When the cells eventually die? 

All the answer that we have created to answer our questions have come from definitions we as humans have created and put in place for hundreds of years and therefore have become facts. This is what psychologists call categorical thinking, where we form categories into which all that we have knowledge of will fit into. These are just mere linguistic divisions we form to help us think better. This is when you realize that we as humans who are very inquisitive and always questioning what's happening to satisfy our curiosities have never gotten the complete answer. We see that our questions that were asked have never been truly answered for the entire span of human history and will never be truly answered ever. We will never stop asking questions even though there is never a perfect answer to the questions we ask...