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Do Morals Matter

roli

Born Again,Spirit Filled
Where do they come from ?
What do they do for usociety
How do morals effect our own personal lives?
How does one become moral ?

Do morals matter
 

Buttercup

Veteran Member

McBell

Resident Sourpuss
It's pretty easy to show that Christianity isn't the only source of morality, but it is harder to show that religion in general isn't. Most Christians recognize that non-christians can be moral anyway.

Two of my favorite examples are 1) altruism in nature 2) Smith Principle

The first implies that goodness can exist apart from religion and for purely practical reasons. The answer to this is well, so does badness. So what? If badness can exist without religion why can't goodness? The answer is clearly that they both can.

The Smith example is about a man named Thomas who gets a visit from what he thinks is Jesus. The spirit tells him to kill people, and he is very troubled by it, but doesn't want to be a doubter. So he thinks about it and decides to ask for advice from friends and spiritual advisers. The catch is that he thinks about it.

Why? Because if his moral judgments came strictly from his religion he wouldn't have questioned it. In fact he is required by it to act on faith in an unquestioning way. If the spirit had told him to give to the poor or something he wouldn't have thought twice because it would agree with his own moral principles. Christians will reply "Well Thomas got those principles from his religion, and the spirit may have been a trick of Satan, so he must think about it."

But how does Thomas know this without applying his own moral meter stick to the situation? He doesn't. God can do whatever he wants and who is Thomas to presume to know God's intentions? Many Christians will admit that god can change his mind, and that is a largely unforeseeable event from our standpoint, so how do they decide if it's the devil or just God acting in mysterious ways? By applying the local standards, that's how. Many Christians will also admit that it is possible for God to want war, murder etc if it suits his purposes, so we are again confronted with how do you know?
Source:
I do not know



There is no ultimate and absolute standard for right and wrong. What's right and wrong is decided by the society in which an individual finds himself in. Judgments about what is right and what is wrong are transitory. Judgments about what is right and what is wrong vary to a huge degree from one culture to the next. It seems plainly evident that to any objective observer, absolute right and wrong do not exist.
 

Random

Well-Known Member
Where do they come from ?

The innate goodness of human beings, emotions of pity and mercy, and disciplines of self-restraint, kindness and compassion.

What do they do for society?

Depends what you define "society" as. If a society is a group of people or communities coming together to abide in unison for the accomplishment of common goals, then obviously morals give those arrangements continuity, focus and a broad set of basic rules to work by.

How do morals effect our own personal lives?

They seperate us actively from the animals, they progenerate the notion of the "common good", they enable our intellects to transcend nature/nurture boundaries, they give us a consistent response pattern to negative and harmful events, and they can keep us sane and responsible in a crazy world.

How does one become moral ?

One does not. Where there is an intellectual soul, there will be moralistic tendencies, including negations. Intellect and morals are coding platforms for behaviour. You do not have a choice not to be moral or immoral, because you exist as a moral entity.

Do morals matter?

Certainly, they're handy. Especially amongst large groups of people. Anything else leads to ruin and sorrow. There is wisdom in morality.
 

ChristineES

Tiggerism
Premium Member
Morals are subjective. For instance, if one is a Christian, then premarital sex is considered wrong. However if one is not a Christian, then premarital sex may not be considrered wrong (that is depending on what morals your parents or your peers have taught you). In some countries, young women are not allowed to socialize with young men without a chaperone. Here in the US it is usually acceptable for young people to date without a chaperone.

Morals come from your parents, your peers, society, religions and faiths, and many other sources. They are important since people need a standard to live by (those would be morals set by society). Morals very much effect our personal lives since a person may feel guilty if s/he does something that may be considered immoral and may not do the act because of personal morals. People have a way of minding other people's business when it comes to morals as well (rumor control and that sort of thing).
 

blackout

Violet.
I think love matters.

Morals cause people to be unloving
on a daily basis...
holding up some "norm"
of society or religion
higher than the person before them.
People think their "norms",
their "customs" and their "morals"
are larger than life.

Morals are carved in stone.
Love is written in the heart.

I think being real is important.
And loving one another. For real.
 

Darkness

Psychoanalyst/Marxist
Roli said:
Where do they come from ?

Any being with consciousness.


Roli said:
What do they do for usociety

Depends on if they are good morals.

Roli said:
How do morals effect our own personal lives?

They restrain us from doing certain things

Roli said:
How does one become moral ?

Depends on what you consider moral.

Do morals matter

Only you can decide that.
 

roli

Born Again,Spirit Filled
Religion is not about morality, it is about social control and gaining power.

I agree, relgion is just that ,control, pressure,intimidation, guilt ,etc.but true Christianity ,that is those who have received Christ as Savior ,which is a relationship with Christ,receive also his nature ,character and attributes, not all who say they are Christians actually live as Christians ,and not all who profess to be Christian are in fact Christian.
 

roli

Born Again,Spirit Filled
1) Human nature (some moral principles appear to be innate)
2) Society, customs, and traditions.
3) Individuals

Is it not also a possibility ,at least looking at a 1 yr old ,where mom and dad have'nt really had the opportunity to instil morals , that they naturally act contrary to what is moral ,they lie, steal,take things from other kids to have as their own, greed, hit, fight, etc.
Yet, when they immediately do these things and a parent has been truly doing their job in instructing and disciplining ,does the kid not know naturally inside of themself that they did wrong ,I have seen it many times ,kids do something bad , and they know it's bad ,because of the way they look at the parent or even an adult as if to say ,I know I did something wrong.
Parents at that point have never really taught them right and wrong and you know that they know ,without the parent, that they did wrong

If we use the philosophy that there are no morals or morals are relative to the person or enviroment, than there really in essence should be no form of discipline or punishment given to any person ,be it kid or adult for any inappropriate behavior a

I know parents build on and help to establish good moral behavior in their children, it obviously is lacking or they failed altogether,because so many adults lie ,steal ,cheat,etc and do so by minimizing, justifying it as, to be relative or their claim there are no morals ,right or wrong .


My point is , are basic morals not already within each of us.

The bible says that ,like it speaks on so many issues ,the man who does not have the law ,does by nature those things in the law ,are a law unto themselves ,who show the work of the law written on their hearts , their conscience bearing witness,accusing or excusing them on the day God will judge the secrets of man's hearts.

We have the moral law,yes of course there are hundreds of things that are moralistic or not ,but I am referring to the moral law of conduct regarding human behavior
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
Where exactly can i find this in hinduism? You know, religion isnt christianity.
What about the old caste system in India? Wasn't that based off of the teachings of karma? Because it was definitely about social control and preserving the power of the elite.

EDIT: Just to make it clear, I don't agree with logician (surprise, surprise), I just think Hinduism wasn't the greatest example. Neopaganism, now....
 
But the caste system was an over-organised way of spreading labour, People would naturally want to get a good job. They would always need labourers. Kings became great from brahmins. Kings gave merchants business. Merchants gave labourers jobs. It all worked. The bunchign of christianity made into religion just donesent work.
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
But the caste system was an over-organised way of spreading labour, People would naturally want to get a good job. They would always need labourers. Kings became great from brahmins. Kings gave merchants business. Merchants gave labourers jobs. It all worked.
Whether it worked or not is debateable, but it was certainly a case of religion being used for "social control and power."
The bunchign of christianity made into religion just donesent work.
Now this I agree with, wholeheartedly.
 

Random

Well-Known Member
The caste system is everywhere, it is the foundation of "democracy" and an archetype of the Catholic Church. The evidence of this remains to be seen by those few who pay attention.

IF YOU are living in the capitalist West, you are part of a caste. You will not, however, realize this directly because the precise operations of the System are not available to you, and you have no knowlege.

But those dastardly "elites", the Old Men with robes and their suited collegues, they know. Hence, POWER.
 

Buttercup

Veteran Member
My point is , are basic morals not already within each of us.
Yes, basic morals are instinctual within each of us. A baby or child of course can't discern these morals because they are helpless and dependent on their parents.

We have the moral law,yes of course there are hundreds of things that are moralistic or not ,but I am referring to the moral law of conduct regarding human behavior
Could you clarify this a bit? Are you trying to say that God instilled basic morals into the cognitive psyche of humans?
 
i haven't taken much time to read the posts in this forum...

my definition of a moral, is somewhat like the idea of, firmware in a computer. firmware is the foundation of the software, what the base parts of the computer runs on. once it is programmed, its the foundation of all software on the computer and regardless of the operating system, the firmware maintains itself (except if you update the firmware).

in other words, as children we are programmed by our parents and experiences, the difference between right or wrong. the idea of morals, or right and wrong, is a completely relative idea. one society could find cannibalism ok, and therefore raise their children to believe so and make it thus part of their morals eventually.

this is where i like religion, mostly. religions for the most part teach a good set of morals, being honest, loyal, ect. i do not believe they come naturally, nor do i believe they are the result of divine intervention of the human mind. i most likely repeated other peoples thoughts, but i just felt like expressing myself
 
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