Morality is a difficult concept to examine. As young people, we start to build opinions about various ideas and begin to understand concepts of right and wrong. This is important because all these things work together to act as a moral compass. Without this compass, we would not be able to make proper decisions and act in the best way in all situations.
However, we will always come across people whose ideas of right and wrong are different from ours. Sometimes, this difference is so great that it may affect how we view them. In other cases, it may be easy for us to see why they may have such a belief.
When you meet a person whose beliefs and understanding of the world are different from yours, but still seem reasonable and valid, do you ever stop to wonder why you shouldn’t be thinking in the same way? After all, would life not be easier if everyone in the world thought and acted the same way at all times?
Have you ever heard of the concept of natural selection? Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution whereby organisms that have specific features that help it to survive in its environment are simply more likely to live long enough to reproduce and pass on that specific trait to the future generation. When this repeats throughout the population and in future generations multiple times, the general characteristics of the entire population changes in a way that helps the species survive in that environment. For example, the Peppered Moth is a species whose change as a result of natural selection is so commonly discussed that it has been nicknamed “Darwin’s Moth”, after Charles Darwin – the biologist who came up with the theory of natural selection.
The Peppered Moth is usually lightly coloured with dark spots or freckles on its wings. This pattern helps it to camouflage into its natural environment, which are tree trunks. There are also some moths that are darker in colour as a result of genetic mutations. In the nineteenth century, industrialisation resulted in air pollution that stained trees and buildings with dark soot. As a result of this, the lighter moths became more visible to predators as compared to darker moths when they rested on the stained tree trunks. So, as more dark moths began to survive and reproduce while less light moths began to survive, the general population of peppered moths in urban areas became dark in colour. Because of this mechanism, it became easier for the general population of Peppered Moths to survive in those areas.
Something as small as the colour of a moth’s wings can affect the survivability of its entire population.
Human beings are not animals or insects. Our goal is no longer just ensuring that our population survives. Instead our goal is to ensure the survival of the values and qualities that make us human. The reason our differences in beliefs and opinion are important is because it can ensure that in a future that brings inconceivable changes to our world, at least one of these ways of thinking survives and helps us to continue battling the elements that tear us apart and lead us to a state of conflict. So, the answer is no. Life would not be easier if everyone in the world thought and acted the same way at all times because all we would create is a world that cannot deal with sudden changes or new growth because there will always be a possibility that it will destroy humanity – not as a population, but as a body capable of morality.
