A recent conversation brought to mind something that I think we need to take a close look at. A simple question: Why?

People seem to expect a lot out of this particular inquiry. They seek more than just a statement of causality, they want purpose. “Why are we here?”, they ask. “Why did this happen?”, “Why me?”. Often the answers are simple: “Evolution,” “Gravity,” “Because you were standing just there when the meteorite came down,” but not entirely satisfying. But why should they be satisfying? What is it we expect from the universe that makes causality and logic seem empty and dry? I think what we are looking for is, at heart, the plot. We want a story, that’s how we understand the world. Everything fits into a story, and a good story has a kind of satisfying closure that physics often just doesn’t provide no matter how hard we poke at it. The natural question arrives at an unfortunate answer when you take this view. Who’s writing the story?

Douglas Adams, in the voice of Arthur Dent, tried to pin down what it was about tea that was so important to the British. Uncharacteristically, I don’t think he succeeded exactly - the question still hangs: what, exactly, is so special about the dried leaves of a Camellia plant soak in hot water?

So what are morals, anyway? More than rules, surely, more than regulations or ethics. Morals are felt deeply, seem to be built into the fabric of our behavior. The deepest of them, the most basic, seem utterly inherent in the universe - handed down by God even.

Of course they aren’t inherent in the universe, they are inherent in humanity - the Universe really doesn’t care how we behave. I think you’ll find that there are only a few things the Universe really cares about, and compliance to those rules is decidedly not voluntary.

That’s a key point, the voluntary aspect. Consider: we think of killing as an intrinsically immoral thing, no? But animals kill for food. Tornadoes, floods and earthquakes kill. Diseases kill. Sometimes animals kill others of their own species, what we would call murder - yet in all these cases, we don’t speak of a violation of morality. Why? The answer is obvious: Choice.