Morality, What or Why?

The following is a post I made this morning on InterfaithForums। I thought you might like to comment on it as well.

Enjoy the holiday!

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I was reading another thread here earlier today and ran into one of those arguments that just makes my blood boil sometimes. Maybe it was just a touch too close to home, but as much as part of it had to do with closed-mindedness regarding something that is an integrated part of my life, it brought up a question that I run into on a regular basis.

Morality, is it about What or Why?

In the dictionary, Webster defines morality as:

1. a : a moral discourse, statement, or lesson b : a literary or other imaginative work teaching a moral lesson
2. a : a doctrine or system of moral conduct b plural : particular moral principles or rules of conduct
3. : conformity to ideals of right human conduct
4. : moral conduct : VIRTUE

Merriam-Webster

Most moralists claim to believe that morality is some combination of 2 through 4 but they tend to be most closely tied to definition #3. Traditionally, moralists think that they have a set of rules, divinely inspired or otherwise, and as long as you abide by them you are a good and moral person. I seriously question that since if that were the case, it would seem that the act that is immoral in one situation would be immoral in all situations.

Lets start with the example of killing another person. If my nation-state or recognized group is at war with your nation-state and I kill you in the execution of that war, I am not only moral, I may well be a hero, unless I break some rule of engagement. On the other hand, if I kill you because you looked at me the wrong way and I felt you had slighted (dissed) me, I am not only immoral, but likely to become incarcerated if I am found out. So the morality is not about the act of killing, but in the why I performed it.

We run into similar arguments regarding sexual orientation which is a much stickier subject. Some feel that if you are attracted to someone of the same gender as yourself, that you are by definition an immoral person. Somehow I suspect that God, who has been claimed to have chimed in with agreement to this position depending on whose interpretation you follow, is likely to be more concerned with why I am sleeping with someone rather than if they have an X or Y chromosome.

If I, a male, go to a bar and pick up another guy and we go home to get it on, am I immoral? If so, would I still be immoral if I had picked up a girl instead? I tend to think the morality come in the why. If I use you as a life-sized 98.6 degree sex toy for the purpose of getting my rocks off, I would say their are likely to be moral issues there, especially if I have alluded to having something more than a hook-up in mind as my intention.

So the questions I am putting out there are these:

1. Is morality about what or why?
2. If morality is about what, how can something be moral in one sense but immoral in another?
3. If Why, by what basis do you determine the morality of a situation

Examples to show your case would be appreciated...