How moral is the average person? This isn’t easy to evaluate. For a long time, I have thought “Humans are slightly more inclined to be humane, than we are to be inhuman.” This I think is still true, but in truth it is only an average expectation. We can believe in it because it seems reasonable to expect that people want to be good. Yet there is so much deceit, fraud, violence and oppression it boggles the mind. It does not exactly change my estimate of human nature, but it always makes me re-evaluate my position among my human peers. On average, in my heart and soul, I know that I am trying to be a better, more moral person, an honest person. It always troubles me that others seem to care so little for that. So, our estimate of the humanity of our fellow human beings also must vary
according to the times. But this, I think is where a religious pledge and faith becomes so significant. Because it is a promise, made before an invisible higher power, always to try to keep our side of the moral bargain, and to elevate the standards of our fellow human beings.
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