Questions about morality on Good Friday

In response to a callout we had for Saturday’s (March 30) show on #AskMargie, Trelly Marigza asked: Christ allowed himself to be nailed to a cross knowing he was going to die. Could we consider this a form of suicide?

Ms Marigza got many responses to her question, but what was most interesting to me was that not a single person considered the possibility that, well, yes, one could say that someone willingly doing something he knew would kill him (even if that something was merely remaining in the Garden of Gethsemane so he could be arrested, tried, then put to death) was committing suicide.

Many people use terms like “suicide by cop” or “suicide by alcohol” when referring to people who do something which will eventually kill them, some ways sooner rather than later.           

I can’t help feeling not considering Christ’s actions suicidal was simply because people felt being Christ, he couldn’t do such a thing; that the reasoning was: Since He’s Christ and Christ is God (thus good/moral) no way would he have done such a thing.

This then got me thinking about morality, and what are the things some people consider bad or even immoral and good and moral. The question that interests me more, of course, is why some people see things differently from the way we do.

Why, for example, do some people feel passing the RH bill was necessary and beneficial, whereas others feel passing the bill was evil and unconscionable? Why are some people outraged by Nelson Navarro’s editing of Sen Enrile’s “biography” whereas others merely shrug their shoulders and say c’est la vie?

And have you ever been surprised about how some people you thought you knew inside and out view things completely differently from the way you thought they would?   

A daughter who had no worries her parents would welcome her fiancé with open arms is surprised when they declare him unsuitable simply because he’s Chinese.

One’s barkada who cut off ties with another friend because she had an affair in her first year of marriage (and not with any of their husbands, which may have made the snub less surprising).

Your Rotary club down the street who did not “de-rotarize” a member who had been caught red-handed stealing from the government.

My feeling is that the daughter, barkada and rotarians have less to do with the actual people judged and much, much more to do with the daughter’s, mates’ and rotarians’ sense of morality.

How does one get one’s sense of morality? Is it nature? Nurture? A combination of both? Neither? Or some other reason not yet discovered?

Before we answer the above questions in Part 2 of this piece, I’d like you to react to the 3 stories below:

Story 1

A family’s dog was killed by a car in front of their house. They had heard that dog meat was delicious, so they cut up the dog’s body, cooked it and ate it for dinner. Nobody saw them do this.

Before you read any further, please answer the following questions, either in the comment section below or email me at draholmes@yahoo.com or via private message on my Facebook page drmargieholmes. That way, I can collate your answers and include local (yours) as well as foreign, data in part 2 of this article on good, bad, right or wrong.

Questions:

1. Did the family do wrong?
2. Under what circumstances would you do the same?
3. What if your partner did it?

Story 2:

A man goes to the supermarket once a week and buys a chicken. But before cooking the chicken, he has sexual intercourse with it. He then cooks it and eats it.

Questions:

1. Did the man do wrong?
2. Under what circumstances would you do the same?
3. What if your partner had sexual intercourse with a chicken?

An overwhelming majority of people have different reactions/answers to Story 1 and Story 2. If you are like most people, why do you think that is so? If you, however, responded the same way to Story 1 and to Story 2, why do you think you’re different from most people?

I already have the necessary (foreign) data to come up with Part 2 of this piece. I am hoping, however, that I will have enough data to add more depth and breadth by including what Rappler-reading people feel.

However, there is one more story I’d like for you to react to:

Story 3

While abroad, a woman was told her mother died in a car accident. There was no way she could go home that night so instead she went to the party she had planned to attend before she heard the news of her mother’s death. 

Questions:

1. Did the woman do wrong?
2. Under what circumstances would you do the same?
3. What if your partner did the same when his mom died?

Looking forward to your answers or-sigh-will write the piece sharing only foreign data, wondering what sort of morality Rappler readers have if they can resist this writer’s call for help (joke only). – Rappler.com