Do you think it is possible to have a set of morals ....?

Question

I noticed the following two questions while serfing the net. They aren't my questions but I wondered how the people of Yahoo answers would respond:

Do you think it is possible to have a set of morals to live by without a religious framework?

If so, then from where would the morals originate?

Answer 1

I would say yes it is possible to have a set of morals without religion. They could come from personal feelings on an issue or what someone might be comfortable with. If someone doesn't want to have sex until they are married, it doesn't have to be because their religion says so, it might be because they feel their first time will mean more to them and their lover if they wait until then. Morals are just personal guidelines based upon someone's feeling on certain subjects. If you do something just because your religion says so, your not doing it for yourself. Would you jump off a bridge if your religion told you to? I wouldn't, I'd throw that religion's holy book off the bridge and find another belief that I felt comfortable in. Hopefully I was able to help.

Answer 2

Of course it is. There have always been those who did not believe in any of the mythological gods that have been around through the years, and in many cases they are MORE "moral" than those who do or did believe in gods who supposedly gave them moral frameworks.

Since there is no evidence of any kind that there *is* any god, and no evidence that "he" ever gave anybody any moral framework, then it follows that all of the religious moral frameworks are inventions of men anyway -- so what's the difference? Morals vary from place to place, time to time, culture to culture -- what's common is that they're guidelines to living harmoniously in the society for which they were conceived. Anyone of reasonable intelligence can figure out how to live harmoniously in any society without a "god" telling them how to do it -- it's not brain surgery :)
Humanistic principles, upon which US law are based, serve quite well as guidelines.
Ultimately, morality (not morals) MUST originate from within each individual. Each person must decide what is moral and what isn't, and how they are going to live their life. Morals imposed by "god" that aren't followed by people in a society are worthless anyway, while morals clearly made up by men and women that ARE followed in a society have great value and are useful. So their success or failure doesn't come from their origin, it comes from their usefulness in creating a harmonious and workable society. Period.

Answer 3

Sure, Secular Humanist moral systems are based on the idea that there is no Universal Standard of Morality, which works fine in a none religious context. It would would originate from the accepted mores of the society, what ever they were.

Answer 4

YES it is possible and I live my life by it.

I trust in my own sense of morality. My sense of morality comes from a humanistic belief in preserving the dignity of my fellow man. Jesus may have said Do unto others what you would have them do unto you but I can say it too without believing in God or any religious dogma. There is a difference between private morality and public standards of acceptable conduct. Ultimately it is my private morality that guides my behaviour but being a humanist I am mindful of my responsibility to adhere to community standards of conduct. These standards are a compromise agreement between by personal desire to express myself and the desire of the civilised state to limit my freedom of expression in so far as it may harm others.
Personal morals originate in the brains of individuals and are informed by the psychological make-up of those individuals. Public standards of morality are an aggregate of those personal moralities which cause the least total suffering in a given society.

Answer 5

A mans own idea of morality or his adoption of the morality of his culture.If there is no God they're really the only choices because each of us would decide for ourselves what is moral and my ideas would be equal to anyone else huh? Good Question. The Bible teaches that God is righteous and our righteousness is as filthy rags to him. those that claim morality comes from within themselves would need to consider murderers often consider themselves moral.. those that consider morality comes from a culture or government need only consider Hitler or many other cultures that went horribly wrong. Morality by Democracy doesn't seem to be righteous as has been proven the majority can be wrong. In any case without a God who would be the judge of what is moral? Society? a king? a politician? Whose judgements would we choose? or every man for himself?

Answer 6

I think there are morals that we can chalk up to basic human decency (a product of civilized society). I don't believe there has to be a religious framework.

These morals include being polite (within reason) to people, don't steal stuff, don't hurt or kill other people, don't rape anyone and don't be a dirty liar (if the lie is harmful to others). That sort of thing. These things, seem to me, to simply be products of a civilized human society.

Answer 7

They originate in our heads. In our need to be happy and healthy and productive. They originate in the Golden Rule which makes perfectly logical sense.

Let me turn the question around - are some people so stupid that they can't come up with at least a half-decent theory of right and wrong on their own? Do they all need a daddy figure to tell them to wash their hands when they finish in the bathroom?

Let's all take responsibility for ourselves!!!

A

Answer 8

You are correct that morals, ethics, need a source of authority. "Because I say so," is not only patronizing, it is nonsense. "I" is not enough authority for anything, because we see how wicked and evil even "good" people are.

Most non-Christain religions appeal to a "higher power" for authority, even if it is just "your nobler self." Problem is, our "self" is not noble:

Jeremiah 17:9
"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Answer 9

Absolutely.

Morals are a set of values that guides our idea of right and wrong. I can guarantee you that someone who grew up in a nonreligious house will have that sense of right and wrong (unless the person is a sociopath).

I grew up in such a house. My set of morals came largely from my parents. Most specifically, my mother, who would tell me that "you hurt someone's feelings" when I did something thoughtless.

You can also get them from friends, society, sub-cultures, etc.

Answer 10

Yes, it is possible.

If they are good morals, they originate from God. People just don't acknowledge it. If they are relative, wishy-washy, or bad morals, they originate from the individual or from a certain segment of society--which is no more than individuals agreeing upon something and instituting it.