Are morality and behaviors (good or bad) two different things?
*MORALITY: *
**1. **moral quality or character; rightness or wrongness, as of an action
**2. **the character of being in accord with the principles or standards of right conduct; right conduct; sometimes, specif., virtue in sexual conduct
**3. **principles of right and wrong in conduct; ethics
Yes they are different. First there is the behavior. Then there is the judgment of whether that behavior is deemed good or bad. We may decide before we act to do good or bad, or a judgment is made after we act. Often it is both.
I think the more important question is who sets the standard for morality?
a. Should it be my own conscience however well or poorly formed it may be?
b. Should it be the culture or sub-culture I happen to live in? The collective consciences of a number of people, again however well or poorly that is formed. Civil laws, farternities, drug culture, gay communities, Nazis, Communists, etc.?
c. Should it be a god or gods created by humans? A claim to a higher power greater than man?
d. Should it be the revealed God we find in the Bible?
And a second thought, can true Morality change over time? Can Right become wrong and wrong become right? Who should have the power to change that?