Where do our morals come from?
riley540
Posts: 1,132
I'm not sure if I believe in a higher power or not. It's something I've thought about a lot. I was thinking about my morals that I carry as a person and can't get passed thinking my morality comes from something bigger. I just don't really know, and was wondering other people's thoughts.
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Everyone feels pain. Humans have empathy. Empathising with another's pain creates a desire to avoid causing pain.
Simple.
The text book definition of sociobiology is "A field of scientific study that is based on the hypothesis that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to examine and explain social behavior within that context." But it's much more complicated than that. And very astute thinkers have argue over this and the "nature vs nurture" dispute endlessly so it's not likely that we'll see a consensus here. Wilson's argument holds more water to me than that of, say Gould, but who am I to prove it? No easy task. And then all this leads us to questions that lead to endless debates like, "Are humans so intelligent and advanced that we are something bigger than biological beings?" Again, I lean strongly toward the ecological sciences and say, no, we are animals, we're a product of our genetics and evolution. At least that's what makes sense to me.
It really CAN be that simple.
But, as sometimes-complex beings, I think the concept of morality might get fucked up in the process of life.
Moreso, for me, with compassion, whether innate or learned (or both). The golden fucking rule.
A cockroach has no concept of morality, it can't conceive of anything beyond itself.
first airplane was not a failure to build the Concord. Morality exists because there is a desire for it to exist. It increases the quality of life. We see this throughout human history. As morality reaches higher and higher standards and these standards become accepted we in turn make higher demands of our moral code. We then begin to see that morality is a process of positive feedback. Just as building the first bridge meant not having to walk as far and freed time for us to pursue desires instead of needs, developing moral codes allowed us to have less fear of others within society which allows us more time to think about what we want instead of guarding against every stranger we encounter. We also can now see that as communication, travel and other technologies are at the beginnings of creating a global society, morality is once again evolving, as we demand more from it. Now that we have closer contacts with other countries, nationalism has become xenophobia and righteous persecution towards LGBT has become homophobia. Keep in mind that religious texts have remained the same for these changes and many more.
Morality, like any other humanity pleased an aesthetic and evolved, as we demanded more from it. As Mozart was not content to forever bang on drums as cavemen did but instead endeavored to create something ever more complex, beautiful and pleasing so does humanity endlessly strive to throw off Bronze Age morality and create a world more beautiful and pleasing for ALL its inhabitants.
https://richarddawkins.net/2013/09/a-refute-to-morality-from-god/
They sure don't come from religion. If someone thinks they need religion to be moral, I think that person may very well be immoral after all.
But, yeah, Dawkins is interesting too.
Some tenets are worthy, and I am a testament to that. Who knows if I'd have the same level of integrity without it? In the end, who cares?
My two cents and not looking to change anyone's open minds.
With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- Mitch Hedberg
If not from God, then everything is part of nature. We chalk up the way birds flock together or how a pride of lions interact with each other to nature. No difference with how humans interact. There is no right or wrong then, just what the general consensus is at that point in time. If we blow up the world with nuclear weapons it is all part of nature. If the world is frozen over in an ice age, or is boiling in a heat wave, it is nature.
Is stealing wrong?
If you are stubbornly sitting on a pile of food that is going to rot because you couldn't possibly eat it all and I steal some for my starving child, is that wrong? Is it immoral?
An act which causes suffering is immoral, an act which causes no suffering is amoral, and an act which alleviates suffering is moral.
Sure, very few people would actually diagnose/"label" a child as a psychopath, but that doesn't mean there aren't clear indicators from very early on in some individuals that go on to fit that label in adulthood.
You also have to bear in mind that most small children appear psychopathic at times, given the natural emotional immaturity and self-centredness.
There are a few reasons mental health experts won't label young children that way, but from what I know (from documentaries and reading), it's not because children can't be born with psychopathy/sociopathy or a severe lack of empathy.