The Nagging Itch of "Ought"
As a mother, I was convinced of the existence of a moral God when my children, without being taught, would complain that something wasn't "fair." Fair? Who taught them about fair? Why is it that no one ever has to teach children about fairness, but all parents hear the universal wail of "That's not fa-a-a-a-a-air!" The concept of fairness is about an internal awareness that there's a certain way that things ought to be. It's not limited to three-year-olds who are unhappy that their older siblings get to stay up later. We see the same thing on "Save the Whales" bumper stickers. Why should we save the whales? Because we ought to take care of the world. Why should we take care of the world? Because we just should, that's why. It's the right thing to do. There's that sense of "ought" again.
Certain values can be found in all human cultures, a belief that we act certain ways because they're the right thing to do. Murdering one's own people is wrong, for example. Lying and cheating is wrong. So is stealing. Where did this universal sense of right and wrong come from? If we just evolved from the apes, and there is nothing except space, time, and matter, then from where did this moral sense of right and wrong arise?
A moral sense of right and wrong isn't connected to our muscles or bones or blood. Some scientists argue that it comes from our genes -- that belief in morality selects us for survival and reproduction. But if pressed, those same scientists would assure you that ultimate right and wrong don't exist in a measurable way, and it's only the illusion of morality that helps us survive. But if one researcher stole another's data and published results under his own name, all the theories about morality as illusion would go right out the window. I don't know of any scientist who wouldn't cry, "That's not fair!" Living in the real world is a true antidote for sophisticated arguments against right and wrong.
Apologist Greg Koukl points out that guilt is another indicator of ultimate right and wrong. "It's tied into our understanding of things that are right and things that are wrong. We feel guilty when we think we've violated a moral rule, an "ought." And that feeling hurts. It doesn't hurt our body; it hurts our souls. An ethical violation is not a physical thing, like a punch in the nose, producing physical pain. It's a soulish injury producing a soulish pain. That's why I call it ethical pain. That's what guilt is -- ethical pain."{4}
The reason all human beings start out with an awareness of right and wrong, the reason we all yearn for justice and fairness, is that we are made in the image of God, who is just and right. The reason we feel violated when someone does us wrong is that a moral law has been broken -- and you can't have a moral law without a moral law giver. Every time we feel that old feeling of, "It's not fa-a-a-a-a-air!" rising up within us, it's a signpost pointing us to the existence of God. He has left signposts pointing to Himself all over creation. That's why we are without excuse.
2006-11-06
11:00:49
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7 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
in
Society & Culture
➔ Religion & Spirituality
Actually, there's another way to think about that. Life isn't fair, but it's equally unfair to everyone, making it... fair.
In paradox lies the truth.
Life is what you make of it. :-)
Nice thesis though.
2006-11-06 11:05:31
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answer #1
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answered by KC 7
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I'm christian, my best friend is wicca, my father is catholic, my cousin is jew, my aunts are atheist, no, nobody hurts my feelings. My father forced me to go to cathesism, I so hated it but i went there and didn't say a word. So the woman that gave it always said "christians do this.. christians do that..." she almost said christians can't go out of their homes without shooting somebody, talk to a demon, jumping 3 times and cutting a monkey's hand.... which is like, ridiculous because she didn't even realize that i was a christian so that's something that bothers me, and if i wasn't christian i would have believed everything she said.... So, no. Every belief is ok as long as its respected, whenever the respect is lost doesn't matter if they're nonbelievers or super super religious that's when the thing gets wrong... a little joke doesn't matter but when they start treating you like crap ugh... If your question is, "because I don't believe do i hurt your feeelings?" Not at all... I mean... why would it hurt me? -.-' Idc people's beliefs, the last thing i talk about with my friends is that
2016-05-22 05:24:22
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answer #2
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answered by Victoria 4
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Ah. What fun!
So where did Right and Wrong come from?
Maybe I should quote Friedrich Neitzsche, from his last book that explored this whole issue, The Genealogy of Morals:
"There is from the start something unwholesome about such priestly aristocracies, about their way of life, which is turned away from action and swings between brooding and emotional explosions: a way of lifewhich may be seen as responsible for the morbidity and neurasthenia of priests of all periods. Yet we are nbot right in maintaining that the cures which they have developed for their morbidities have proved a hundred times more dangerous than the ills themselves? Humanity is still suffering from the after-effects of those priestly cures. Think, fro example, of certain forms of diet (abstinence from meat), fasting, sexual continence, escape "into the desert"; think further of the whole anti-sensual metaphysics of the priests, conductive to inertia and false refinement; of the self-hypnosis encouraged by the fakirs and brahmans, where a glass knob and an idee fixe take the place of God. And at last, supervening on all this, comes utter saiety, together with its radical remedy, nothingness-or God, for the desire for a mystical union with God is nothing other than the Buddhists desire to sink himself into Nirvana. Among the priests everything becomes more dangerous, not cures and specifics alone but also arrogance, vindictivenessm acumen, profligacy, love, the desire for power, disease. In all fairness, it should be added, however, that only on this soil, the precarious soil of priestly existence, has man been able to develop into an interesting creature; that only here has the human mind grown both profound and evil; and it is in these two respects, after all, that man has proved his superioirty over the rest of creation." Ch. VI
There you have it, summed up by one of the most misunderstood philosophers of all time. RIght and wrong, as we see it, has been dictated by the priests for the whole of our remembered moral history. And because of these priests and their depraved, looking down upon, view of society; and the fact that they have the most twisted morals of all, give us a cultural sense of right and wrong.
Not God as you implied, but his Minions, who are responsible for some of the most dastardly evils against culture, are the reason for right and wrong. Look to your priest next time you ask that question.
Match Point => Random
2006-11-06 11:25:52
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answer #3
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answered by Random 3
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No...
We know the difference between right and wrong because it's what we've been taught from an early age. Society mixed with instinct lets us know that murdering someone is wrong. Some people with mental problems don't realize that murdering is wrong... So were they not created in the image of god? No, something is wrong with their brains, so they can't accept society's view of morality.
2006-11-06 11:07:09
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answer #4
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answered by ....... 4
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Humans have a highly evoled brain that is hard wired to be social. Of course you don't believe me but the science is there.
Ask yourself these questions;
Why does damage to the Prefrontal cortex cause anti-social behaviour? (Phineas Gage)
Why does a deficiency in the neurons that allow us to mirror behaviours point to autism? Sciam.com
We evolved in social groups, and continue to live in such. Why is it such a far stretch of the imagination that we are hard-wired to operate in social groups?
2006-11-06 11:10:50
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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Youre a mother huh? Im wondering where you copied and pasted this from....
And, one point - chimpanzees in the wild demonstrate a sense of morality - they despise killing each other, and they tend to share more with sibling chimps than with non-sibling chimps. Seeing as no one can learn morality without your Bible, perhaps you could explain who translated the Bible into Chimpanese??? And who continues to preach it to them?
2006-11-06 11:09:10
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answer #6
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answered by YDoncha_Blowme 6
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Congratulations thats the longest question I ever did see. Couldn't be bothered to read it though.
2006-11-06 11:05:52
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answer #7
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answered by greebo 4
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