Lewis argues that the Moral Law is a Law, in that it is known by everyone as a standard code of conduct. However, it is not a Law like the Law of Gravity, because it is not universally obeyed. He calls this “odd” because everyone sees it, but not everyone does it, at least not all the time. Everyone sees that it would be a benefit to society if it were done, but everyone finds exceptions to living up to it, at one point or another. Lewis stops there, saying that this is all we can really know.
I want to go a little further, however. I believe that the reason it is difficult to live up to is because of two reasons: First, because of what was mentioned before that there is a conflict between a code of what is good for everyone, and that which is good for ourselves. So there is preservation of society, and also a preservation of self, and these two instincts do not always work together. I can either share my chocolate with my children or I can have it all to myself, and I have to make a choice. I may choose to keep it all myself and have my reasons to do so, but it would be more difficult to explain that to my children. I will use moral reasoning to them, as if it were for their own benefit that I was not sharing my chocolate, but the real reason is that I was hoping to eat it all myself. Thus, I struggle with these two principles in my soul—that of benefiting the other or that of benefiting myself.
Kant believed that the benefit of the other is the only pure moral. However, reality is in fact much more messy. I could benefit both my children and myself by sharing the chocolate, because too much chocolate is bad for me, as it is bad for them. But if we all moderated the chocolate, then it is a benefit for both. So if I shared the chocolate, Kant would point his accusing finger at me and say that my motives were completely pure because I gained some benefit from it, both to my health and to my taste buds. But if we look at the many moral choices we make everyday, we find that the benefit to others is not often separated from a benefit to ourselves. Our motives are constantly mixed and often difficult to decipher because we often have more than one motive involved. Thus, when many people make an evil choice, say, like killing all the Jews in Europe, our motives may seem mixed, but how different is that from any other moral decision we make. From the Nazi point of view, the moral choices all look the same. It only looks different if we see it strictly from the Jewish point of view.
Also, exceptions are found because the Moral Law is not singular. Newton’s three laws of motion were found to be contradictory in the context of a black hole, and this led to the discovery of a much more complex set of laws called Relativity. There are still laws, but there are a number of them and it is difficult to determine which law will reign in a particular context unless one really works it out. And whether time slows or not is certainly not intuitive.
It is a similar case with the Moral Law. There is not a single law, but a set of them and given the context that we may be in, they may be contradictory. For instance, there is a law of human freedom, in which adult human beings have the freedom to do as they please, as long as they do not hurt another. But there is also the law of responsibility in which if a human makes an error, they must do their best to correct it. But do these laws not contradict each other? If one has responsibility, then one does not have perfect freedom and the more responsibility one has the less freedom one has. There is a balanced to be reached between these two laws in every life, in each situation, and the conclusions that would be correct may not be intuitive. It requires thought and careful reasoning.
However, most people are not trained in moral reasoning. In fact, most people are trained to obey laws, not to understand and apply moral principles. It has been determined in the ancient days that it is simpler to tell the masses “do this” rather than teach them how to determine themselves what is the best thing to do. However, we find in modern society that we have multiplied the laws to such a degree that we cannot expect everyone to know exactly what it is that they must do. To “do this” turns out to be more complex than simply learning to think for ourselves what the right thing it is to do.
But in education we still do not teach moral reasoning. Instead, we teach the obedience to rules, whatever they may be. This is a fault and a wrong. If, like Calvinists believe, every human is innately corrupt and selfish, then “do this or else you will be punished” is the right way to go, and all we have to do is find the right selfish incentive. However, studies of human nature have found that humanity is more complex than simple corruption or selfishness. We do have a code of right and wrong that we really do want to follow. However, it is too complex for us to figure out, if we are not trained to do it. Unfortunately, those who lead us in morality are just as empty in their moral reasoning. They are no better at making moral choices than the rest of us. Thus, what we are told to do is as morally weak as deciding ourselves what to do.
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