Coping with a Crisis of Faith: When Morality Clashes with Ethics

In today's world, it is only a matter of time before one has a crisis of faith, a crucial moment where one weighs the religion and/or philosophy of their life up until that time against the situation at hand. One could argue that this is happening more increasingly due to the troubling times in which we live, where our televisions and newspapers are wrought with stories of war and terror, but equally likely is the possibility that we are living in more spiritually challenging times. Each person has to make a series of near-impossible judgment calls in his lifetime in order to help him grow and evolve into a stronger, more conscientious individual. This greater global consciousness is what is truly needed in a world filled with conflict and chaos.

There is a debate in both the philosophical and the lexicographical communities about the nature of the difference between morals and ethics. Why call them two different things, some would argue, when both mean the same thing? The answer to this is simple, and lies in a delicate detail regarding the nature of the two words. Ethics refers to a set of rules seemingly ingrained in the human psyche from birth. While there are greater, far-reaching ones that seem to come with every new human life (don't kill people, try not to dump nuclear waste where you're going to eat), some seem to be unique to certain populations of individuals, who likely cannot articulate the hows and whys around what is right and wrong, but know in the core of their being that it is so. Morals, on the other hand, refer to a set of rules that have been passed down (from previous generations, a society, religious leaders, et cetera) to an individual and have then been incorporated into one's ethics. The two interact carefully and gently, for the most part, to create a morally (and ethically) sound individual who can function in society and still manage to live with themselves. What happens, then, when a person's innate sense of right and wrong (ethics) conflicts with the morals that one has learned? A crisis of faith.

A crisis of faith is defined as a period in one's life when one experiences doubt and intense internal conflict regarding the religion or philosophy that one follows. Such an event is a crisis because it has a tendency to dominate one's state of mind until it is resolved, and the issue at hand either has to be resolved or the belief in question must be discarded. The problems that one can face in such times include preoccupation, mental anguish, and fear of one's eventual fate (if one embraces a doctrine that accepts damnation as a potential outcome for those who fail to perform to a high enough standard). Should one come to the conclusion that the belief in question needs to be removed from his personal philosophy, there is the chance that one's social support would be in jeopardy if it were dependent upon mutual beliefs (such as a church group, or some families). When there is so much at stake, how can one make a level-headed decision as to what is right and wrong?

The fact of the matter is, ethics are almost always right. When you have a gut feeling that something is wrong, it probably is. Because they are, by their very nature, innate, ethics are not subject to the personal whims or agendas of other people or large groups of people. Various moral codes have been, throughout history, vulnerable to the ideology of the oligarchy, and a set of rules put forth with even the best of intentions can evolve into a mangled discussion about who it is and is not acceptable to kill (the Holy Crusades), who it is acceptable to dominate (slavery and animal rights), and even who is allowed to speak and when (women's suffrage). When one faces serious doubt in the face of outdated theological structure, one must look upon the issue at hand in the present moment. There are no catch-alls when it comes to philosophical conundrums; each instance must be weighed individually, in respect only to the circumstances directly around it. To set-in-stone moral codes, however, the idea of ethics applied on a case-by-case basis is very threatening. Indeed, they shake the very foundation upon which such moral codes are based; if the code can be wrong in one instance, what is to say that it was ever correct?

When it comes down to the moment of crisis, it is important to remember three things: listen to what your heart (or brain, or other metonymic organ you chose) is telling you. Rely on yourself during your crisis of faith, because other people could have their own agendas, and whether they enforce them with good intentions or ill, you're still at risk of having someone else's agendas forced onto you. Take a careful look around you. Study the environment of your conflict as well as the habits of nature, and learn to intuit what ethics have been with you during the course of your life. What beliefs have failed to lead you astray, or into conflict? Can they be relied on in this instance? If all else fails, take a deep breath and remember that you came into the world without any massive internal conflicts, and you can return to that state with enough time and concentration.