This is something that we've been discussing a lot in my philosophy class, so I thought I'd ask it here.
Where do you think morals come from? Are they something that comes from religion/God, from society, from yourself, or born into you?
I believe that your morals are a mixture of what you learn from your society/culture and something that you come up with yourself. I don't believe in the thought that morals come from God, and I don't think that they're born into you because the difference between right and wrong is something that most children can't grasp at a young age and it must be taught to them.
Good points, and I agree. In my eyes, a culture/society is the primary influence, often by way or family. Nurture I believe its called. We are not inherit built as moral creatures, we learn them to a large degree based upon the views and forces of family, state, sometimes Church, and very much Law. And they change, I mean, a moral noble in Medieval times believed it was morally right to burn witches and to fight non-Christians, as that is what the broad moral rules where of the day. These days new morals have replaced them based upon the different views of society.
However, some, such as the Ancient Greek Philosophers like Socrates, believed that we are basically good, and have inbuilt morals, which maybe can be right, after all, we know loyalty and killing is wrong.... to a degree. So yes, nurture over nature, we learn morals, we aren't born with them....
__________________
From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.
Gender: Female Location: every which way but loose
Re: Where do morals come from?
I have to agree on one level, that IMO morals don't stem from God, because I am not religious. But what about those who believe in the Christain faith? Moses? Wasn't it him who got the Ten Commandments?
What about the negative connotation placed on polygamy by the Catholic Church? This was not handed down by God, it was a decree that originated from the church leadership at the time intending to increase the amount land inheritted by the church. It is now immoral to take part in polygamy, and while it did in fact come from a religious source, it was motivated by clearly human motives such as greed and the desire to build wealth.
Primitive societys also made some of those rules. It is unlikely that
a. Murdering somebody (e.g. killing without a valid reason, which isn't easy) like Abel, wasn't a happy act.
b. Stealing the fruit of truth from the tree, or stealing any leader's gold is not appreciated.
c. Calling your leader a stuck up prig just speaks for itself, doesn't it.
KMC Community Forums
Oct 4th, 2004 03:15 PM
Ytaker agreed with me once on October 9th, 2004
