What is your belief on the origin of morals?

Question

Do you believe that mankind (and other animals besides) are born with an in-built sense of empathy? The idea that would feel less inclined to do something that we would not like to be done to ourselves?

Or do you believe that morals - the rules by which our conscience is governed - are based on either fear of divine retribution or the promise of reward for such treatment of fellow men?

The floor is yours.

Edit: "...either born with or develop a natural sense of empathy..."

I personally question the idea that all animals have no morals and act on instinct alone.

From my observation of different animals, particularly those that live as a community, I can safely say that although their morals are different, they are certainly not lacking.

Answer 1

Humans are born with empathy, it's called theory of mind. It develops as the child grows. Some are not born with it or have limited development of it. Autism is one of the disabilities which is stems from a lack of ToM.

However you should not mix that with morals such as 'you must not kill' or 'you must not steal'. These come from social need. If you need to have a rule, it is because some people want to.

It is the case that most people really don't want to kill or steel or the like. So protect, the society makes moral rules, some backed by law others backed by mythical intervention. There is nothing more powerful, when controlling than to say that you are being watched all the time and you will be caught out and punished.

Take speed cameras. some drivers hate them because they are like the all seeing and will catch them out.

So for society it is so useful to invent God just like we invented Father Christmas to keep people in line.

Answer 2

Ethics predates morals. Ethics is what started behavior patterns in relationships. Group ethics, one clan vs clan, began when two clans tribed up to finish off another, who joinded up with the tribe rather than be done in. To join, the clan had to accept the rules. And the Golden Rule still rules. Them with the gold, make the rules. Once that was settled, ethics provided the template for all things governing man's relationship with man and women. This went on until the oblisk of Babylonian (correct for bs) which had one of the first written set of rules. We're talking 5000 BC. and maybe twice that far back. With the advent of the priestly caste we now developed morals. Morals is the relationship between us men and women, and a diety. Moralists assume that man can offend the Creator by doing just about anything, and that man cannot possibly know the Creators list of all things offensive, thus man became the happy owner of religion, Morals are the written set of religious rules, with accompaning enforcement, that has been mostly responsible for the thick layer of blood that now covers the planet. Ethics is pretty much the same now as then," Don't monkey with anothers Monkey's monkey".

Answer 3

God is good and gave us a sense of right and wrong not to make life boring or difficult but to help us cooperate and enjoy life. What we feel to be right generally works and what we know to be wrong causes problems sooner or later. The fact that morals are socially useful isn't surprising, it just supports the idea that they come from a good source. We are born with this in-built sense. Let's develop it and keep to it. Perhaps even be grateful for it. Your point about divine retribution is valid if morals come from God: it must matter to Him whether we follow this in-built code.

Answer 4

I believe morals developed over time but were most affected in their development by the Ten Commandments. I don't understand the removal of the Ten Commandments plaques from the walls of our courthouses----most of our laws dealing with what is right or wrong came from the Commandments.

I don't believe our morals are based on fear of divine retribution or promise of reward---but I do believe that the reason we might try to be morally upright has to do with that fear or promise.

Answer 5

Morality comes from evolution.

It's unarguably true that society as we know it could not exist if we didn't have self-imposed codes of behaviour - i.e. we make value judgments about what is 'good' and 'bad' behaviour in any particular situation. This is just one of the things which has made us such an enormously successful species, but many other species have the same traits; They care for their young, they alert others to danger, they co-exist without conflict, they co-operate to hunt prey and so on.

It's hard to say exactly what goes on in the minds of other species but we know from experiments that they experience empathy - this can even be shown in mice - and empathy is one of the key aspects of morality. When you can recognise what another individual is experiencing then that is the basis of moral values which, broadly speaking, cause people to voluntarily limit harm to others and thereby enable us to live in closely-packed co-operative societies. Morality evolved as a very successful survival strategy.

Morality is of course subjective and has the same origin for all of us, theist and atheist alike, even if the theists believe that their morality consists of simply following orders of their deity (which would not be truly moral behaviour at all, but amoral behaviour).

Everyone has their own moral values - the line between good and bad - but there are common themes such as the prohibition against killing another person, or incest. The moral issues of lesser consequence will tend to have less of a consensus of opinion but the common themes exist because of the commonality of human nature.

Hope this helps...

Answer 6

We are not born with morals. Children are born crying until they get what they want and when they get a little older they have to be taught to not take what they want.

Morals have to be learned. Man was created in the image of God which means like His character. Man lost God's character/morals at the fall and we now have a sinful character. God wants to teach us to live right again, so He gave us the 10 commandments to follow to show us His character.

Edit: That's why they have to be in our heart & mind and cannot be forced on someone.

Answer 7

The first answer is good enough for me to see no reason to add to it. However I'd like to recommend a book if you're really interested in this topic - Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals by Robert M Pirsig.

Answer 8

Well, animals do not have morals. They act on instinct alone.

Man and his morals= Man knows at a certain age what is right and what is wrong. When you choose to do wrong and you know deep down that it is wrong, but you still do it then that is an integrity issue.

It is a choice thing, even my baby knows on some point of what she does, what is right and what is wrong. But me as the parent have to instill into her the values of life

Answer 9

Religion is not the source of morals.

Animals don't kill each other except for reasons of survival.
Humans kill each other over sneakers and traffic.

Answer 10

BORN WITH my one year old son knows when someone is hurt and as you get older and more aware of what is going on around you, you feel what is right and wrong i believe god is with you always and lets you know what is right and wrong your dont have to go to church to feel his presence but thats another subject

if your around a dog and are crying they will come up to you lick you and try and cheer you up and dogs dont know what crying is but they know your upset, who tells a dog to show sympathy?