How does morality come into being? what are the reasons for feelings of shame\embarassment and dread?

Answer 1

Group dynamics play a large part in the development of morality. Animals that form groups tend to develop compassion for those in the group, competition for position in the group, and enmity towards those outside the group. The implicit rules that develop during that type of interaction are the primitive basis for our morality. Feelings of shame and embarassment come from some of that competition and implicit rule making. It is really a mild form of fear. A person feeling shame is really feeling a mild fear of the other members of the group for breaking a rule. You see the same thing in your dog when it knows it did something wrong.

Answer 2

Part of morality is genetic. The nurturing feelings we have for our children ensure the survival of our race. If all Robins said, "Screw it. I'm not wasting my summer building a nest and raising a bunch of squaking babies", then there would be no more robins.

Other moral notions about right and wrong were probably genetically encoded during the million or so years we spent as hunters/gatherers. Clearly some behaviors, again, increase the possibility that the group will survive, and others are nihilistic.

That humans can asses behavior and its impact on the survivablitiy of the group is a testament to our level of intelligence, which on occasions does fail us.

Religious feelings probably evolved as a method to "cement" the group in ways that cold, calm, rational thought cannot do.

Shame embarrassment and dread are emotional reactions that occur when we feel we have violated the social mores of the group and we are worried about the consequences. In hunter/gatherer days, the consequences could have been swift and severe.

How do all these in-bred moral feelings and social mores serve us today in the complex world we live in? Some, not too well.

Religious fervor causes a lot of problems. Why should we care if people are gay or want to have abortions? I think those issues are very good examples that show that religious thought, at a fundie level, is contrary to the further advancement of society.

Is it moral to dump millions of tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, thereby destroying the world for our offspring? I would say no it is not, but we are all busy leading lives that cause this to happen instead of changing. This is a moral issue to some degree that we, equipped with our hunter/gatherer thought processes and moral codes are unable to properly deal with.

Anyone who says that there is a God who imprints us with morality is just self-deluding, in my opinion.

Answer 3

Well, it starts with parents, obviously, or with the guardians of the child. Unfortunately, nowadays that means a good part of it is coming from day care providers.

But shame, embarrassment and even dread come from a variety of situations for a variety of reasons. Some have the whole heaven/hell punishment/reward routine pounded into their brains, and the dread is that any particular sin can be bad enough to get you consigned to punishment in hell. Pretty scary concept: a guy has a heart attack in the arms of a woman who is not his wife, and goes to hell forever for it, regardless of all the good things he ever did? That's pretty scary, you gotta admit.

Shame and embarrassment can come from violation of rules of etiquette at least as easily as violation of something strong enough to be considered a moral code. They are mostly about what others know of your behavior. Shame may sometimes be about your own sense of failing to live up to the moral standard you believe in.

To me, all such insight into ones own behavior, the regret of consequences one had not intended but should have been able to anticipate, all of that, help us grow as human beings. But they must be counterbalanced by an honest pat on the back for yourself (trying hard not to dislocate your shoulder in the process) when you do something right. That must also be there, or the whole process becomes one grim mea culpa and creates depression and thoughts of suicide.

Witches follow the rede: what you do returns to you threefold. Therefore, if you do good, you got it made. If you do harm, the magnifying of it threefold may be enough to kill or permanently maim you. Think three times.

Answer 4

There are basic agreements in life that are what most people call "common sense". These agreements align with those actions which enhance and assist a person's survival and the survival of others as well as the existing environment that we all share. This is moral and ethical conduct .
We have made these agreements because we are all basically seeking to survive. We all have this innate positive purpose.

So when we transgress and act against these agreements and against our survival and the survival of our fellows, we KNOW that is what we are doing. And so we withdraw from others and seek to restrain ourselves, this causes the negative emotions.(shame, blame, regret etc)
Eventually if we cannot restrain ourselves we expect others will
try and do so to protect their survival or worry that others might find out and reject or punish us, (dread).
But actually we punish ourselves much worse than anyone else could.
Man is basically good. The fact that he does this to himself when he knows his actions are bad, is proof of it.

Answer 5

Morality comes from the teachings of the Messengers of the One True God.
The sense of shame is innate, which leads man to obedience of the divine laws.
Man becomes corrupted at the periods of religious transition to a new phase of spiritual progress.

Answer 6

A moral sense will come to anybody who lives in a society and realizes that there are some actions which would be a detriment to that society. This is entirely appropriate, we can learn from evolution (which applies to societies as well as species) that a society which uses sound moral principles will survive preferably to one that does not. This justifies the standard: if an action is beneficial to society, it is moral; if detrimental, immoral; and if it has negligible effect, it is without moral significance.

Answer 7

There are two types:

1. Absolute. This comes from some form of supernatural source, e.g. God. Murder is wrong under all circumstances.

2. Relative. This is determined by a social group. What may be right for one group under its special circumstances may be wrong for another group.

I've read somewhere the following quote, "Nothing is right or wrong but thinking makes it so", or something to that effect. Under what circumstance would rape be right?? I cannot think of any.

Answer 8

I don't think we are born immediately feeling shame, embarrassment or dread; I think they are culturally and socially taught to us early on as children. As a young child there are constants "Don't run in the house or hallway" "Don't eat with your mouth open" "Don't do this, that is bad, you can't have this". . . we learn more things we do wrong than what we do right because those things that we do right aren't praised so readily as thost that we do "that aren't right". And it's amazing, because the right things far outweigh the wrong but because they aren't paid attention to it isn't as apparent and doesn't stick with us as adults so we pass along this to our children and the cycle just continues. . .

Answer 9

Because as children our parents, authority figures, and society at large programmed those things into our subconscious minds before we were self aware enough to question what we were being told was fact.

Answer 10

We doesn't have to be religion to feel this it born inside of everyone