Morality

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But moral thinking can go beyond that. Notice that the highest levels of moral thinking involve abstraction and sometimes transcends societal thinking. THIS morality isn't about avoidance of punishment or conformity. Higher education, in particular can equip individuals with the intellectual tools to perform such abstractions. Hence, education can be beneficial for a moral agent in this regard.

If I’m seeking the best moral development from my education, do you think I should major in mechanical engineering, or would it better served by being a humanities major? Do technical degrees, mathematical degrees, etc.. give us less moral development, than humanities degrees, or a bachelors in psychology?

These are Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral growth. Notice that the lowest level of moral thinking is obedience--- fear of punishment/seeking of rewards. This is what most religions emphasize-- lower level, egoistic morality. (obedience to God, fear of Hell etc.) AT BEST, religion conveys morality at the conventional level, where a moral agent adopts guidelines from the encompassing society or culture. This is morality based on conformity.

No, the actual moral life of believers, doesn’t consist of morality represented as blinded obedience out of fear or, or fear at all, but rather built on the obligation to love.

I also think that people tend to imagine that actual moral lives of people are devoted to political questions, abortion and gay rights, as if these play any real part in the lives of the majority of people. They are more or less things you might think about every few years when it comes time to vote, but in everyday life it is out of sight out of mind. Its existence in political contemplations and policy choices, is superficial, and an after thought.


Everyday morality is intimate and personal, it has do with our relationships with others, with those near to us, our families, friends, community, etc… Morality is a constant part of my life. In struggling be a good father, a husband, a son, in the restoration of broken relationship. It’s contemplating my moral failing, and the moral failing of those I care about. It’s about talking to my wife of how we shouldn’t talk bad about people, how we should forgive and not hold to resent. It’s about telling my father, that his dark cloud of petty resentments and disappointment, is the result of his inability to truly repent, and acknowledge the weight of his sins, to love as Christ loved us. When it’s laid with true compassion, it’s like the out pouring of fire, of a profound and irrefutable truth.

That’s the predominant moral view of believers.