Morals as a Moderator

Morality isn’t about religion. Morality isn’t what they do or don’t teach at church or synagogue or the mosque. Morals also aren’t laws, rules, or what our parents or teachers expect of our behavior. Morals are an individual’s standards of personal behavior. Everyone has morals. Not everyone can explain them, not everyone can even list them. Some people aren’t aware that they have them at all. The tricky part is that we all have morals about the same things.

Think about that for a minute: we all have morals about the same things. For example, everyone has a moral guideline about stealing. Not everyone has the same conduct about it, for any given situation. So, while we all have the same class of morals, we don’t all have the same conclusions about them. Stealing is a way of life for some people. Others wouldn’t even dream of it, let alone do it. These different practices of morals act as a moderator. They both limit and guide our choices. The more self-aware a person is, the more they can understand and thereby take advantage of the moderating effect of their morals.