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Morgan Bell

Professor Basham

English 101

18 November 2018

Morality Comes from Within

Where does morality come from? Certainly many people would answer that

religion must be the answer. People behave in a certain way because their religion

dictates that they act accordingly. However, that is a flawed view. People seem to have

their own sense of moral code that influences their behavior and reactions which would

account for different moral codes from people within the same religion. Morality comes

from a person’s own sense of self, and this is evident through a person’s personality, life

choices, and the moral code a person has developed.

Morality comes from a person’s own sense of identity, and that can be seen

from a person’s personality. Children brought up in the same household have different

personalities and different moral codes. One child may be more aggressive and

competitive, so that child’s views of right and wrong may be skewed toward a more self-

serving angle that allows him or her to effectively treat people badly if it helps him or

her get ahead. Another child from that household may be overly compassionate and not

be able to use another being’s weaknesses against him or her just to get ahead. This

proves that morality comes from within a person and is not simply taught.

It is also evident that morality comes from within when one analyzes people’s

life choices. A person with a high moral ethic may make sure that his or her family is
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always the most important thing in his or her life while a person with fewer moral

boundaries may rationalize that they have no choice but to put his or her job first. A

person will make many life choices based on his or her sense of ethics. Does a person

give a few dollars to a homeless person, or does that person walk on acting as though

the homeless person is invisible? Is it one’s responsibility to stop and try to help

someone that has broken down on the side of the road, or is getting home on time

more important? These decisions are not and cannot be individually taught or molded; a

person’s personality and own moral compass shine through, guiding the choices he or

she will make.

Some may say that morality has to be tied to religion, but this is simply a flawed

and overly simplistic way of explaining morality. There are people that are very religious,

and yet they are extremely racist. How can these two facts exist simultaneously?

Obviously, religion then, is not the only factor. Religion does not condone racism.

Therefore, that sense of it being acceptable to be afraid of certain people or shun

certain people based on race would seemingly come from within that person, not from

religion. The same is true for many other scenarios.

Morality is neither innate nor is it dependent on religious codes. Morality comes

from within and continues to evolve over a person’s lifetime. A person’s moral code is

evidenced in his or her personality. In addition, the life choices a person makes depicts

his or her sense of morality. Finally, a person’s moral code is developed over a lifetime.

A person’s moral character may be influenced by his or her upbringing and experiences,
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but ultimately, the defining characteristics of one’s sense of ethics still comes from his

or her own sense of right and wrong, being neither taught nor learned.