“Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless” (Martin Luther King Jr.). This quote by King describes how morality cannot ultimately be dictated by laws, but behavior can be. True morality comes from the heart and laws won’t cause someone have a morality change. Moral behavior is very often influenced by both religion and laws in the way that religion can make people think they may be punished in the afterlife for certain actions, laws, and both religion and laws have things that are prohibited that really aren’t “wrong”.
Firstly, morality is often influenced by religion by making people think they will be punished after they die for doing certain …show more content…
When we think about being gay and murder, we probably won’t think of them being the same in the sense of morality. We obviously think that murder is far worse. Because being gay is looked down upon, is it wrong? In Nagels essay, “The Objective Basis of Morality” he quotes, “God couldn’t just make any old thing wrong-like putting on your left sock before your right-simply by prohibiting it?” (Nagel, P. 3, para. 14). The point is that the choice of things being wrong or right are up for discussion. Some people may not believe in the bible or even religion at all, which means that whatever is in there, they may not believe is morally correct or incorrect unless they have made that decision themselves, not just because it is in the bible or other sacred texts. But, there are also a lot of things prohibited by law that aren’t technically “wrong” or at least not in some people’s opinion. Going back to segregation, when it was against the law to have blacks mix with whites, this was a law, but it was never morally wrong to mix both races together. Mixing the races doesn’t hurt others in the end. Another example of this would be that more people are arrested for the use of marijuana, than violent crimes combined, according to “The Washington Post”. Is the use of marijuana morally wrong because it is against the law? Murder is morally wrong, because it is hurting others and there are victims. However, marijuana use does not have any records of there being any deaths or even injuries resulting from using
Firstly, morality is often influenced by religion by making people think they will be punished after they die for doing certain …show more content…
When we think about being gay and murder, we probably won’t think of them being the same in the sense of morality. We obviously think that murder is far worse. Because being gay is looked down upon, is it wrong? In Nagels essay, “The Objective Basis of Morality” he quotes, “God couldn’t just make any old thing wrong-like putting on your left sock before your right-simply by prohibiting it?” (Nagel, P. 3, para. 14). The point is that the choice of things being wrong or right are up for discussion. Some people may not believe in the bible or even religion at all, which means that whatever is in there, they may not believe is morally correct or incorrect unless they have made that decision themselves, not just because it is in the bible or other sacred texts. But, there are also a lot of things prohibited by law that aren’t technically “wrong” or at least not in some people’s opinion. Going back to segregation, when it was against the law to have blacks mix with whites, this was a law, but it was never morally wrong to mix both races together. Mixing the races doesn’t hurt others in the end. Another example of this would be that more people are arrested for the use of marijuana, than violent crimes combined, according to “The Washington Post”. Is the use of marijuana morally wrong because it is against the law? Murder is morally wrong, because it is hurting others and there are victims. However, marijuana use does not have any records of there being any deaths or even injuries resulting from using