A Puzzling Notion of Right and Wrong

Have you wondered why the human world is so confusing? Each one of us perceives the world differently yet, we have engraved rules on stones for how humans must live. What may be right to one, may not be right for another and this thought lead me to wonder, what decides rights and wrongs in our conscience? Is it an innate feeling or is it contingent on our holy books?

Psychologists say that while a fair share of the human conscience is driven by religious books and the law, conscience in both its individual and universal aspects. The view that holds conscience to be an innate, intuitive faculty determining the perception of right and wrong is called intuitionism". Even the rule books couldn't stop you from believing in what your conscience feels is right but what does stop us, is the consequences of our actions, and our commitment to our family and friends.

Very often as a child and as a young adult, I have wondered the reason behind certain beliefs being so paradoxical and of the innumerable possibilities, humans have rendered impractical due to their 'limited' knowledge, or lack thereof. The possibility of God, or-as silly as it sounds- the possibility of the Earth being flat! Just because we humans do not know more than what our discoveries allow us to, does not mean certain theories cannot really be true, the universe has a lot of unexplored realities. Homosexuality was a ridiculous thought for the longest time, but look now! But that's a talk for another day.

Certain practices humans consider as right may, in reality, be wrong. We will never know. I used to be upset, as a child, over what my parents would say. They'd ask me to be happy and grateful as there are people less fortunate than me. I'd reply with "if so then I shouldn't be happy either because there are people better off than me". It may sound silly, but it does make sense. Everything has an opposite.

The human moral codes are very paradoxical as well. The moral codes, very often conflict with our primal instincts. Being loyal, for example, isn't our primal instincts. Human beings involve themselves wherever they find an opportunity or an advantage thus loyalty was never supposed to be in the book but you and I would expect our friends and partners to be loyal to us.

So, should rules not be there at all? No. Human beings are strongly driven by their intuitions and they, for the majority of the human population, work quite well, thus I'd say, while basic rules must be written down, the rest must be up to each individual to decide but hey, you could disagree, it's just my perception after all!