Are you born w/ a moral compass?

Question

If not, how can freewill exist? We mimic what we see from birth, but we have no control over what we see. You can tell right from wrong, but what of people who are ignorant of the consequences? And we can't blame one another for being ignorant because simply put: any man will be a better man under better circumstances. So how can there be a justification for eternal damnation?

By no choice what I mean is- you can easily be the son/daughter of a wealthy banker or a drug dealer or a neo-Nazi. Don't tell me how and where you grow up doesn't make a difference. Life get's VERY complicated, and we're all brainwashed to some degree. When people live in a jungle, they adapt. Not all of us have the resources to develop a mindful conscious. There is no equal opportinity, it all depends on where society's at and how much "food" is going around. I understand the Bible is a starting place for ethics, but you really have to study literature, film, music, current affairs, etc...to gain a worldly sense of empathy.

Answer 1

I've responded to a question like this before.

Paul writes

"All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law,

*do by nature things required by the law,

they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that

*the requirements of the law are written on their hearts,
*their consciences

also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defeding them."

~ Romans 2:12-15 ( Wicked sweet spacing and * added)

So, Paul himself writes that those who do not believe in the Bible, Gentiles, have this nature in them. Despite not having heard the bible or the Ten Commandments, one can still follow them, or be moved by the "requirements of the Law written on their hearts", their conscience, to do so.

Yes, we do tend to mimic our environment, but since when did we have no control over that we see? Isn't that what eyelids, and good choices, are for. I refuse to accept your point that we have no control over our surroundings. If I choose to walk into a crackhouse, how do I have no control over what I see there. Is walking into a crackhouse and then 'having no control' over what I see there a legitimate excuse for becoming an addict?

What of people who are 'ignorant' of the consequences?

John 15:22 " (Jesus Speaking) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin."

Here we see that ignorance is no excuse. And why can't we blame ignorant people for what they do? We hold the ignorant accountable today. It was my responsibility to become acquainted with the parking regulations on my campus, as I was parking there. When I parked my car in the wrong place, it was ticketed.

To hold your earlier claim, you must also be willing to say that I shouldn't have to pay that ticket despite the fact that I was (unknown to myself) blocking an ambulance route.

"But I didn't know!?" isn't an excuse, is it? I don't think it'll fly. And unless you think we should always be informed of the possible outcomes of our actions (Think 'Caution: Coffee may be hot!') to be held accountable, I think you should, too. Clearly, the establishment is to blame for me spilling my hot coffee on myself, since they didn't tell me that it was hot.

I believe It is also our responsibility to search out the truth of the world.

As far as better circumstances go, consider this. Try not to see the goodness of a man in what he does, but what he can do. Can you judge the better: an old, homeless woman giving the last of her bread to a hungry child, or a rich doctor writing out a $1000 check to a charity? Can you do it? I can't.

Considering better circumstances... If I handed a stranger a check for $10,000 for no reason, would he stop beating his wife?
Better circumstances may make a man more likely to do right than wrong, but I don't agree that better circumstances are what allow him to see the difference. Just because a someone grew up on the streets doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable for stealing televisions.

I'm winded, and will not argue towards a justification for eternal damnation. But I will say this: we can and will be held accountable for our actions, regardless of our upbringing.

Answer 2

All the great Philosophers of the world have been asking that since the dawn of the new era and I do not think that we are any closer. I think we are born with a nature for good and bad but it is conscience choice as to what to do based upon outside influences. Oh and by the way ignorance of the law does not exempt you from liability to the law

Answer 3

Nope.
A person raised in a wealthy home and good morals can become a murderer.A child born to a prostitute in the slums of New york can become a CEO of a corporation.

Answer 4

I can only answer from a Christian Faith pov... to answer your last first...God makes the rules, period, neither you or I have any say in that. There are two choises, obay God's rules or not. whichever way you go you will receive the consequences...It is your choise of which way to go...

All mortals are confined in choises by the society they are raised in. But as age and experience increases, the options of free will increase... There is an age of accountability for all... after that age, and only GOd knows when that age is reached for each individual, then you are totaly on your own in deciding to follow God's rules or not... for those who do not... they damn themselves by their choises... God did, and still dose, provide the alternative. TO ALL who will choose it.

From the Christian Faith pov all mortals are born with a sin nature... all are going to sin... when it becomes a choise of free will at the age of accoutabilitu,,. then it is a chose not to do it again... and for those of The Christian Faith there is the forgivness from God for all who come to God in The Way He proscribes.

Answer 5

i do believe in free will but i also know that circumstances affect who we are and how much this can affect our free will ..and this is the very reason i do not accept the whole hell concept
our situations and how we are raised ( in love or fear ) can have such an impact on how we perceive right from wrong

Answer 6

and how do you know that? do all women turn to prostitution because it's the only way? or its the easiest? ppl are born with strengths and weaknesses but ppl were also born with the power to overcome. whining about bad circumstances won't get anybody anywhere

Answer 7

No, morals are learned through society and interaction with other people. Morals are relative to the society in which they exist.

Answer 8

The only thing that justifies eternal damnation is free will. No one HAS to do wrong things. If they do wrong and they do not know its wrong then they are not guilty of it. In our free will, we choose wrong over right.

Answer 9

I have a moral GPS system that points me to where the next 3some is going on

Answer 10

But you can be taught what to do and through either circumstance or choice, reject moral behavior.