How does one?

Question

define morality? How are your morals better than mine? why? Why are your morals better than some guy on the other side of the world? Without a standard for morals, you have no morals.
Christians have the bible as their standard. It is unchanging. What is correct today will remain correct tomorrow. Can you say the same of your morals?

Answer 1

No. That's because morals should not BE unchanging! The universe is not black-and-white; we have countless colors and gray areas.

The true source of morals is the wisdom of one's heart. The heart is always "correct."

The only standard for morals is the survival of the species. That's why it is instinctive/intuitive for most people that hurting others is wrong.

Answer 2

First of all to compare morals is ridiculous, as long as you are a firm believer in helping and serving others your morally on point. As far as tha bible being a standard for Christians, that's ok, the Koran is the standard for others just sd tha Gita is for yet another group. As long as people have a standard of morals then I agree with whatever they believe in. Will my morals remain, sure believe it or not, the answer is a resounding YES, will always stay the same. There are things I'v done in my life out of confusion, but I KNEW then it was wrong and it eats me up daily. So, even though I;m not perfect by any means I know the difference between right and wrong and try to do right day to day.

Answer 3

Morality is nothing more than common sense. Every moral standard can be defined by the word harm. It is morally wrong to do harm to any one on any level. Even people who do bad things know that they are wrong. The difference is that they do not care. This is a lack of character. One would have to be mentally handicaped to not know right from wrong. We do not need a book to tell us these things. Apparently fear of eternal damnation has not helped to change this world into a better place. that is beaue it is not real. The believers will do a wrong but are able to cover it up by looking rightous in church and so fool their peers. I am a kind a honest person and I want to do my part ever how small to make this world a better place. . What more is there?

Answer 4

way too many questions in a single question. keep in mind this is heavy stuff. The idea that somebody's morals are better or worse than another's is called "moral relativism", or "individual moral relativism" according to Shaw. Let's say that my morals are better than yours. There is no way we can argue that, because no matter what, we would think that our particular view is the right view, therefore moral relativism can't work. The idea that your morals are better than some guy across the world is also defeated, but it does raise the question of cultural ethical relativism (or the idea that our culture/society dictates our moral code). Cultural ethical relativism is much more believable, but still raises problems. Take for example a remote society that believes in the random torture of infants. They would not see a problem with it, wherein we would. The members of that society then would be conforming to the moral code of their society, as we would be to ours. We both can't be right, but we're running on different values (not standards). Many christians fail to uphold the ethics of the bible, and the Bible itself fails to uphold it's own ethics (because of it's many contradictions). And that thing about "What is correct today will remain correct tomorrow" is false. Think about this: In 19th century America, Slavery was an accepted norm in society. Today we (most of us...the intelligent) look back on it and realize it was wrong. How could it be right back then but wrong today? If you believe in the stronger argument about ethics (that cultural ethical relativism is true), then you cannot draw distinctions from the past and present (therefore everthing that is right was always right and will remain right). If that's not enough to chew on, I offer you another example: bombing in war. Somewhere along the line we got the idea that it is wrong to bomb innocent civilians and we should only attack the enemy's military (think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then think about what would happen if we tried to pull that crap today). Ethics change, but there must be some sort of solid code of ethics, some sort of super-ethics that is hidden from us.

Answer 5

The Bible's a pretty interesting "standard for morals." I've read it. God apparently condones rape, murder, adultery, all sorts of things I find abhorrent.

I'm guessing you'll say that's not what you meant; you probably meant the Ten Commandments. Which are a decent set of rules, but I see many Christians holding them up as a standard but only following them when it is convenient. "Thou shalt not kill," for example, apparently only refers to Christian humans of the same nationality. I've met very few Christian vegetarians. And does the Christian god only bless America? Apparently the loss of innocents is acceptable if they have the misfortune to be born in a country we are at war with.


I do have an unchanging standard of my own, thanks for asking:
"An it harm none, do as ye will."

That one sentence covers everything. It means I must weigh every action and determine whether it will harm another or harm myself, before I act. If after careful consideration, it appears that an action I was considering will not cause harm, I may proceed. I must take responsibility for my actions, and decide for myself the best course of action. I don't need every detail spelled out because I have the ability to reason for myself. For example, I know that if I were to have an affair with a married man, I would damage his marriage, cause emotional pain to his wife if she knew, which would possibly lead to a divorce; if he had children they would also be hurt, and I would lose respect for myself even if no one found out. Since I know adultery would cause a great deal of harm, I don't do it. Not harming does include myself; for example if I were being attacked, it would be OK to defend myself, to the extent necessary to protect my life. The choices may be different from day to day but the guiding principle remains the same.

I've never claimed that my morals are better than anyone else's.
I find that deliberately provoking people into unnecessary arguments in order to deflate them violates my principles.
You may not have a commandment against insulting others, but I do.

Answer 6

I can say for sure that my morals are better than many Christians'. At least I'm doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing instead of in fear of being struck down by an angry god. That stuff is for children, when you grow up you need to develop post-conventional morality. What the Bible says is not always going to be the moral compass for every single situation, and in many cases, it has caused more suffering than good.

Answer 7

Define morality, eh? ... Simply, they are the commonly accepted behavioral values of any given society, and "No"... I certainly can't say that my morals or morals in general are static, and I can't say that Christian morals are perfectly static either.

Moral values and behavior are a product of the society one happens to be a part of. In the land of "an eye for an eye" that's part of the moral code, and the law and... that's just how it is. There is no standard moral code for all of mankind. The best we can do is hope to share the best ideas of all societies and pass along a fair example of an agreeable and just legal system and to attempt to enforce a minimum human rights code world wide.

As for the Bible and it's "moral teaching"... have you read the ten commandments lately? Do you really think that ALL of the commandments are applicable to people in modern societies? Get real.

In addition, the "perfect Christian moral code" that you seem to think exists is so wishy-washy that on any given day it might produce the next David Koresh or Jim Jones - maniac, self-righteous murderers who justified themselves as doing God's good work.....

Don't be a fool. Your Bible and your beliefs suck as badly as anything else when it comes down to being perfect.

It's time to sell the donkey cart, Abraham - we live in a world of automobiles, jet aircraft and space shuttles now... and we have public educational systems and enforceable government laws to teach us and keep order. We don't need your "walk with Jesus morals" or your bible half-truths to lead us around like sheep. We can think for ourselves and cast our votes to model our society the way that we want it.

[][][] r u randy? [][][]
.

Answer 8

Causing pain on another is the only universal moral I can think of. Whether it be physical or emotional, everyone no matter who/what you are, you have to feel at least a little apathy towards another. Even animals go crazy when someone is hurting someone else. All other morals and beliefs are just trivial in comparison.

Answer 9

1. The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.
2. A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct: religious morality; Christian morality.
3. Virtuous conduct.
4. A rule or lesson in moral conduct.
(I'm Christian)

Answer 10

now wait a minute, indeed our morals are set by the bible, but if one never makes an effort to learn, and obey them, then he is still morally bankrupt, and has no moral compass in which to gain direction, and should not be spitting into the wind about them.