The Issue of Morality: Do laws really decide right and wrong?

Chesterton once wrote that “art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.” I would agree with him, but I would also say that that both art and morality are alike in another fashion. In order to be considered “good” we have to know precisely where to draw the line. I can give my 6 month old a pen and a piece of blank paper and he will draw some lines. This doesn’t make it good art (though it may still be refrigerator worthy). In the same way drawing a moral line wherever we like it doesn’t constitute “good” morality. Saying that rape and murder are the only offenses worthy of being banned by law and claiming that you are a moral person is the equivalent of comparing the drawing of my 6 month old to a Monet or a Picasso; it simply doesn’t work. 

Shawn cannot create good art, and to insist that he can is foolish. Yet with morality we spend enormous amounts of time and effort trying to convince each other that wrong is right and right is intolerant and therefore wrong. We do so not in a desire to live in an evil fashion, but rather to live happily. I think the problem lies in trying to understand just exactly what the true purpose of morality is. For many it has become merely a social construct that is shaped and molded by human laws and efforts. If the law says it is legal, than it must be morally acceptable. By changing laws and legislation we can change what is right and wrong. Unfortunately we know that in all reality this cannot actually be true. If slavery was legal it would still be morally unacceptable.  The same logic applies for murder, rape, stealing, etc. Merely legalizing an act has very little to do with its true moral value.

What, then, is morality? Ultimately, the task of human morality is to match our ideas of good and evil to those of God.  If we truly believe that God is completely good (which He is), then we can only be “good” when we are acting the way He wants us to act. It all goes back to the book of Genesis and being created in the image and likeness of God. If we think of our actions as a portrait that we are painting, and the person we are painting is God, then our morality is either good or bad depending on how closely it resembles God.  When we grapple with difficult moral decisions like abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality we must be careful not to try and paint a portrait of God that makes us feel good and then demand that He change to fit our picture. Morality, like art, is about expressing truth.  Absolute truth never changes, no matter what laws we pass.  We are only truly good when we live our lives the way that God (who is ultimate goodness) has asked us to.