Jeremy Clarkson: we are born with a moral compass

Moral Compass - Jeremy Clarkson

"I genuinely believe we are born with a moral compass and we don't need it reset every Sunday."

- Jeremy Clarkson

Quote Source: The Sunday Times

Zaphod's picture
Nice short sweet to the point

Nice short sweet to the point, but unfortunately not true for all of us. I wish it were but there certain individuals born with out the facilities to have empathy or relate to other and others who are can't tell the difference between right and wrong without having it pretty much spelled out to them frequently enough to remind them what is and is not acceptable behavior. For these people religion is important as it serves a purpose however flawed these societal control devices may be. However that being said, most of us do have what some would call a moral compass.

In the 60's experiments were conducted to put authority against a persons morals the experiments conducted found only about a little more than third of us have a naturally strong moral compass that will guide us stand to up to authority when being told to do something we find morally corrupt or wrong when encouraged or ordered to continue by someone we think is an authority figure and less than twenty percent will let their their moral compass lead them to outright defiance of authority. Sadly, most will do things we find horrible and uncomfortable to do so long as as we are not the one the doing is being done to and an authoritative figure simply tells us to without even threat to us... Interestingly, most religion teaches that God is the highest authority and disobedience carries the great threat of eternal suffering. Additionally, most figureheads of most if not all religions hold some level of authority.

Here is a snippet taken from a quote of a person who responded some 6 years later after the famous Milgram Shock Box Experiments which I find thought provoking and fitting for this site, the subject wrote:

"While I was a subject in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority."

The subject goes on to explain how they were willing to face jail time for declining the draft on grounds of submitting to authority to do things that would defy their faith. In this case, whether or not he went went to jail, or we thought his decision was right or wrong, his faith may have save the lives of this man or many others. Clearly without his faith he would do things as had been proven in the 60's he thought to be immoral under the rule of authority.

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