Feeling Moral by J. Budziszewski

[David Virtue]

Feeling Moral

By J. Budziszewski

"Luke!  Trust your feelings!"  As we know, Luke does what he is told,
and the galaxy is saved.  How fortunate that he did not trust his mind
and skill, as he was tempted to, because then the evil empire would
have won.  The Star Wars movies express a view of how to live, a
morality of feeling, found far beyond the perimeter of the Dreamworks
studio.  As Keats wrote to a friend, "O for a life of sensations rather
than of thoughts!"

The morality of feelings turns out to be quite ecumenical.  From a
Roman Catholic website advising young people as to how to recognize the
call of God:  "Listen to your feelings ...."  From a young
Evangelical's letter to a college magazine:  "I became convinced that
this is the guy God want[s] me to marry .... [but] he's prayed about it
and feels that she's the one God wants him to marry .... there are
times that I feel that maybe he's wrong about her."  (Emphasis added.)