“There is a way that
people think is right, but it leads only to death.” Proverbs 14:2 (ERV)
We have a
higher opinion of our ability to make moral decisions than we should. Actually, this relative “delusion” often
extends to our ability to make logical decisions in general. Elsewhere <here> I talked about the
fact that even when we know the right thing to do, we don’t always do it. But there is an even deeper issue that we all
have, which is succinctly summarized in the Proverb above: sometimes we think something is right -
convinced of it even – but we are wrong.
This is hard for us to accept. We usually have a pretty good idea when other people are wrong. We’d probably agree with the general concept
that human beings are not perfect decision-makers on any topic, including moral
decisions. But when it comes to
admitting that this principle applies to us – to me – well, then we get pretty defensive. It’s easy for us to see the shortcomings in
others – but when it comes to taking care of our own shortcomings, we become
pretty blind.
The point I
want to make in this entry is to establish this principle: we take a big risk when we decide to establish
our own reason and feelings as the
basis for determining right and wrong. The
risk is that we can be convinced that something is right, but “it leads only to
death.” In general we know the
fundamentals of logic and reason. We can
think through situations and make good and correct decisions. We have that ability. But sometimes we just fail to make use of our
innate abilities. I’d like to make this
point with three different illustrations of common human behavior.
Example #1: Our emotions and sensitivities can override
our reason. Want an obvious example of
that? Tailgating. Driving 60 miles an hour and being 15 feet
behind the car in front of you. I’ve
done quite a bit of driving in my day and I’ve driven from East coast to West
coast. And what I have observed is that
at least 50% of you are chronic tailgaters.
Why is that? There is not a shred
of logic behind tailgating. When it
comes to weighing risk and benefit, it is all risk with zero benefit. Do I really need to explain it? But, for a variety of reasons, most people
just can’t help themselves. And it’s so
easy to stop tailgating – just back off – but yet we still do it. With tailgating, we are needlessly risking
our own lives and the lives of those around us.
And I won’t even mention things like texting and driving or drunk
driving. If we can’t be trusted to use
our reason properly in something so common and so simple, how can we really
trust ourselves in bigger, more complex, decisions?
Example
2: Our perspective bias – we see what we
want to see. Plenty of examples of
this can be found in the world of sports.
In particular, I’m talking about fans of sports teams. People root for
the sports teams of their choice and their views are totally influenced by
their “fandom.” A group of people see
the same play but the fans on one side say that there was a foul and the fans
on the other side say there was no foul.
Isn’t it clear that some people’s view of what did or didn’t happen is
clouded by their biases as a fan?
I’m a big
Cleveland Indians fan. As a result, I
see things related to my team in a favorable light. I still think that the Atlanta Braves
pitching staff got too generous of a strike zone in the ’95 World Series. If you’re a Braves fan, I’m sure you saw it differently
(and by now you surely don’t care). This
type of disagreement occurs daily in sports.
Fans on one side say “that was obviously the worst call ever” and fans
on the other side say “there is no question that was the right call.” Well, they
can’t all be right – but they are all convinced
that they are right. Totally convinced. This just illustrates how we are so easily
biased by our own situation, our own environment, our own family and
friends. This is one big reason why we
can’t always trust ourselves as the final decision-maker about right and
wrong. We will often be too lenient on
our friends and too harsh on our enemies (or, sometimes, vice versa!). And, worst of
all, we will almost always be too lenient on ourselves.
Example #3: We can say we
believe something when we don’t really
believe it. It’s just another fact
of human nature: we can all be
hypocrites sometimes. I think it might
be one of those unique qualities of human beings. I think we all have things that, if someone
asked us, we would say we believe with great confidence, yet our actions would
prove otherwise. Case in point: “everything is relative.” I don’t mean in “relative” as in physics, but
relative in moral issues. I know plenty
of people that would deny that there are any moral absolutes. They would argue the issue for hours –
vehemently. Yet, at the same time, they
would also stand strongly on moral statements such as “it’s wrong to judge
others” or “you can’t tell me what is wrong for me.” These are absolute truths that they, in
actual practice, live by. They say “there
are no absolutes”, but they live as if there are.
Of course, the moral relativists
don’t have the corner on hypocrisy. Those
who stand staunchly on various moral absolutes can be the biggest hypocrites of
all. Just observe their actions! Do they
always do what they say? It happens all
the time that those who speak out against some great “sin” or other are then
found to violate that very issue.
Be honest people: we’re all big hypocrites!
We have to make decisions about what is
right and wrong on a daily basis. We are
faced with choices – we can’t avoid that – and we have to respond, even if the
way we respond is to do nothing. All I
want to conclude in this entry is that if we rely on our own great impeccable
innate ability to determine what is right and wrong…well, we’re going to make
some mistakes. No – probably a lot of
mistakes. We’re just not as good at this
as we think we are.
