My morality pre-exists my faith
Both are permanently related
When I read the Gospel
And when I choose to follow Christ in my life as a believer
I base myself on a moral content
But.. How to explain...
Christ and my religious faith bring a transcendence
To my morality
My Faith...
it hasn't really influenced my moral values
Because I'm a really good person already...
Not really
It's just...
I was brought up very strictly at home
My family had expectations of what kind of person I should be
So religion doesn't really affect my family background
Sometimes...
I think that you can't say it's unrelated to religion
For example, before I thought
that running a red light
was only a matter of a few seconds
and that it wasn't a big deal
then one of my classmates said to me
If you only have to wait a few seconds to do the right thing
Why wouldn't you just wait
And I thought that made sense
So now I try my best not to run red lights
You might think that it's got nothing to do with religion
but I think
That it was planned that you were able to hear this today
It's God's plan for you
Because my whole family are Christians
So my moral values or ethics are all quite conservative
I was heavily influenced by my family
I don't particularly think that morals have much to do with religious conservatism
I think that morals are more influenced by your environment
Your environment...
I've met a lot of Christians here
The older you get
the more you realize that a lot of your values come from
the way you were brought up
your mother and father
My parents are both teachers
and I grew up in the south, in Chia-Yi (Jiayi)
It was a very conservative and simple environment
It was only when I came to Taipei for university...
In the south there wasn't so much available...
At most it was supplements in the newspaper
Or novels
Even the films in the cinema were very limited
When I came to Taipei it was the first Golden Horse Film Expo
I think watching films had a big influence on me
Coming into contact with films from so many different countries
Like Bergman, Kieslowski
You came into contact with these masters
and you saw the attitude with which they confronted life
and I started to go to the theatre
In the theatre I got to know a lot of...
artists and actors
and we would have many discussions
and that's when you started to form...
when you're original value system starts to break down
and you start to form your own
but this is all a gradual process
You'll realize however, that there are still many things
that you deal with with the value system of your first 18 or 20 years
and those moral values
in approaching your own life
For example, in the Decalogue "Thou Shall Not Kill"
It's a fundamental moral law
"You shall not covet your neighbor's wife" is a fundamental law too
Because it implies the relation to the other the respect of the other
If I try to have my neighbor's wife
I create a conflict which will destroy society
"You shall not kill" is the same
I believe some people are innately good
Others are innately rebellious
and will want to do what others forbid them
I'm not that kind of person
So...
I try my best to do what others...
I'll try my best not to do what others don't wish me to do
I think morality is...
Taiwanese people normally think of...
Ethics?
No.
not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself
If you don't want someone to do something to you
then don't do that to anyone else
it's a kind of consensus
If you try and use morals to explain, or order human behaviour
It's mostly appropriate
Is that guy a moral person?
Why isn't he moral?
But sometimes
If you can have a set of moral explanations for your own behaviour
and reasons behind it
I put more stock in that
Because some things are quite hard to...
It's more about the role of the person making the decision
If you see morals as a tool
then you see man as like an animal
Like for example, some people...
Here's a rather strange example
Some parents beat their children
because they'll think if you beat the child they'll learn something
If morality is just a tool
Or a whip
then man is a very simple animal
and can be trained like that
but I think morality is more a way of looking at the world
The way you think about the world is your morality
and it's not because
you're bad to those who are good and scared of those who are evil
and only that gets you thinking or morality
I think I'm influenced by Deleuze
I think the world is different powers
and it's not like...
and these powers clash with one another
and it's just a matter of which wins
and you're just an incarnation of that power
Everything you do isn't because you think it will bring you happiness
Sometimes it's just because you want to do it
Or force of habit or something
Sometimes thinking about yourself
isn't necessarily to do with happiness
The reasons can be quite complex
So I don't think it's just about self-interest
that drives you to help other people to make yourself happy
You can't just explain it away that way
You can't think from your self
from "I" in a small sense
You have to think from a bigger "I"
but it's not as simple as all that
the level I'm at now
and my ability
I know that
it's a more formalistic way of approaching things
For example in the last few years
I've been working at non-profit institutions
And I've felt really happy with that
and...
and everything in relation to...
It starts to seem like...
Before,
the way you dealth with things was related to your upbringing
You had to marry, have kids, earn money and so on and so forth
This kind of system of values
it changes in the course of everyday life
Including the ideal of filial piety to your parents
and things like that
All these kinds of things
after reading the scriptures
and when you start to understand that
that a lot of your issues are due to you not getting along with yourself very well
Subtitles: Conor Stuart & Cerise Phiv