The Dissection of Morality

At dinner with colleagues the topic of conversation became one that generally should not be discussed with colleagues - Religion.  During this discussion, after the revelation that we were not all of one accord, this question was posed:  "Without god, how do you explain good people and evil people." This simple question started a stream of consciousness that threatened to turn into a tirade on multiple occasions.  What follows is a best-effort attempt to recap the full response.

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You see, I believe that there is no true good or evil, just decisions and circumstance.  I look at life, sort of like a tree.  Each decision you make, you are choosing a branch on the tree.  The goal is to stay close to the trunk, and climb higher and higher, but inevitably we stray.  Some of us find ourselves hanging onto a limb, dangling where it is so thin it starts to bow.   

Some of us may even start out life out on one of these thin limbs. Regardless of how one gets there, the goal is to get somewhere better - somewhere safer. So, instinctively, we scrap and scrape, steal, kill, whatever is necessary, to climb up from that weakened limb.    

Thus, I contend that we are not good or evil, and that...  Actually, allow me to add a 3rd thing to my list.  It's decisions, circumstance, and the judgement of the beholder.   I contend that we are not inherently good or evil, but are shaped into what is perceived as good and evil by these three things.  

I have control of my decisions, at least I appear to, so that component does lie within me. However it's difficult to fathom decisions being based on anything other than experience or 'taking a stab in the dark'.  So how much of my good/evil ratio truly rests with my own decisions.  I believe a much greater component is the experiences that drove me to that decision, which is where circumstance comes into play.  If I have had a rough life, then I've probably developed a "look out for myself" attitude.  If I grew up with everything being stolen from me, I'm probably watching my back.  If i was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I'm used to everything being my way - handed to me.  These are of course generalizations, but they suffice to make my point.   

The third component though, is perhaps the most important of all.  "My" good or evil status, is based on your judgement of me as such.  If someone drives drunk and kills a kid, most people will decide they are evil (again generalization) and condemn them as such.  Never mind the fact that this - theoretical - person was also giving thousands to charities, and spent his/her spare time with troubled inner city youth in a Big Brother / Big Sister program.  Those types of facts are rarely considered because one bad decision has already condemned them in the eyes of the public.

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[Image from Vanderbilt University]

Morality is a very gray area, and is only made grayer by notions that we are inherently one or the other.  We are all (not a generalization) inherently both.  Our circumstances, the decisions we make, and 'public opinion' are what puts us into a bucket.  All of us have a story with parts that are unknown - sometimes even to our closest friends.  I strive to consider this at all times, I try to not pass judgement, and I intend to respect the culture of those who live in different societies with different norms.  

I understand that others have different circumstances. Given the same set of choices I have been given, they may have made very different decisions.  Therefore, I must reason that I cannot hold anyone else to my moral code, because it is based purely on my own experiences, my circumstances, and my decisions - something no one else can ever have.