What Makes Something Right or Wrong

For many religious people the answer to this question is simple, what does the Bible say, what does the Koran say, then add it to some interpretation and some updating for a centuries and vola, we have a judgment. For instance, the Bible is pretty down on homosexuals and the Koran is pretty down on women being equal. Okay, so maybe I picked some bad examples, but many religious groups have magic books that they look stuff up in to determine what is right and what is wrong.

But, what is the path for us that don't see the light, that are agnostics, or atheists, or even worse scientists or engineers. Where do we look to find out what is right and wrong. First, it is my opinion that we are born with an innate sense of right and wrong that is then reinforced or torn down by those around us, usually our parents.

I also think we can get there my a rational analysis that shows that peaceful coexistence and the traits of the human that makes that possible maximizes the possibility for survival of our species. And if that is not the ultimate goal, then the opposite path, and our destruction, seems in its own construction to be meaningless. What traits make peaceful coexistence possible: cooperation, respect, kindness, love, etc. would all seem to be right and the right thing to do.

There is yet another way. To look at mother nature, to immerse ones self in it and in its details, to find the reason for life and by example what is right and wrong. Look at any mother in nature and how they raise their children. Or wolves that mate for life and live in small communities to help each other survive. Our ants or bees and their complex societies. Or dolphins how they care for the well being of other species, even humans. All we need to know about what is right and wrong is acted out in front of us in the small amount of nature that survives our hard hand, the hard hand of its most powerful member of nature, humans.

A lot of our problems in our culture comes from our disconnection with our roots, nature. We travel on asphalt, live in buildings with artificial environments, spend little time and very little quality time with our mates and family. Vacations are spent in cars, man made amusement parks with their fake water rides, etc, eat in restaurants with their sugar heavy deserts, and never converse with another human about anything important. Our whole existence is about commercialism, the maximum extraction of commodities, fuels, etc. out of the ground for constructing our artificial worlds. We form communities like face-book and thoughts to fill in for the communities we have lost in our race for prosperity, the filling of our lives with imitations of life, which makes me think of the oxymoron of reality TV. Our aliments reflect our loss of our connection with nature, obesity and diabetes are two examples. Cancer one day will surely be linked to the vast use of chemicals that we use carelessly in our lives starting at our birth.

Right and wrong is right out your door in the spirit of the robin that comes in spring, the geese that come in the winter, or the spiders that hunt under your porch. It is with great care that we must use our intelligence in altering our world away from where nature would lead us.