What are some misconceptions of morality?

Question

i really need some help with my homework in Christian Living. i can't seem to find the correct answer. i'm in need of some help badly. pls help! thanks! =]

Answer 1

Determine the moral of a woman depending on the way she dresses. Clothing should be according to the weather and not according to our religion or morals. Why do I have to cover myself from head to toe and suffer the heat on a summer day just because "macho men" are born with a sick mind??? Making our life easier dressing comfortably during the summer heat has nothing to do with religious beliefs or morals, that's a stupid idea imposed by fanatic male chauvinists.

Answer 2

Yes, indeed. The most widely accepted misconception seems to be that those outside the Christian religion, and others, are immoral because they do not derive morality from 'the good book', when in fact, morality is not at all founded in the Bible. It pre-dates organized religion, by far, and is necessary to create such an orderly civilization that we build today. Reading through the Old Testament, you'll find that slavery is widely condoned, by God. It even goes so far as to describe how you should beat your slaves. Go further into the New Testament, and you'll find absolutely no objections. There's so much God-justified murder throughout the Bible that you just have to wonder how that's moral. Yet Christians will say that this is OK, and personally reject slavery, because they know how immoral it is to enslave a human being. They're cherry-picking. The biggest misconception is that you need religion to be a moral person. I am not religious, and I can see clearly that the Bible teaches immorality in the name of its own doctrine repeatedly!

Answer 3

Firstly there is the gross misconception that morality derives from a religious framework. Morality is a social necessity, and thus pre-dates organised religion.

Even pack animals have a simplistic form of morality, based on pack leadership and the "pecking" order. If you challenge the alpha male and win, you're the new alpha male. If you lose you are dead or driven out. You don't try to mate with the alpha male's females. The weak and the slow are left for a predator so that the strong and the breeding members of the pack can survive. It's not a conscious morality like humans develop, but humans didn't always have consciousness either (because, as you know, we evolved from "lesser" animals).

Morality is that which sets the bounds of appropriate behaviour in a community. It's immoral to kill your own tribe members, because that weakens the tribe. It's immoral to mate with your mother or sister (risk of genetic faults). It's immoral to steal, lie and gossip (creates disharmony).

What religion does is to take the moral codes that already exist in a group and codify them in dogma. This leads to problems down the track. For instance, it is appropriate in an earlier time to tell people to go forth and multiply, as numbers make for a stronger tribe, replace losses due to conflict and illness (the lack of decent medical practices makes mortality all the more omnipresent) and there are lots of resources to go around. However, to mandate increasing the population in an over-populated world with a different economic system and rapidy dwindling resources can be argued to be immoral.

The moral values of a society have to be flexible, and just. They have to be able to adapt to changes in the environments that the society exists in. Take the religious "moral' justification for the inferior status of women or homosexuals, for example. There can be no moral justification for this dogma in today's society. None are harmed by homosexuality, and homosexuals, because they do not have children except adopting those abandoned by others, are actually consuming fewer resources in many cases. Women have every bit as much right to earn the same pay for the same job when they are not needed to be devoted to being breeders (remember, longer lifespans, fewer premature deaths due to medical advances, and the need to reduce resource consumption).

So, morality is a product of societal needs, not religious imperatives, and in many cases, because dogma is not able to adapt, religions "morality" is actually immoral. That's leaving out all the obvious immoralities inherent in texts like the bible and the koran, for example.

Answer 4

The biggest misconception is that those not living their lives for God have no morals - We do not get our morality from religion. We are born with an understanding of right and wrong, which is further developed through what we are taught and from observing society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

Answer 5

The biggest one is that religion is a prerequisite for good morals. In fact the opposite is true. The major cause of all of the worlds wars has, in part, been due to religion. Religion is sometimes used to justify one's hatred such as the Phelps family. They use religion to justify their hateful protests at soldiers funerals. Religion is also used to guilt the gullible into sending in money from all over the country. So many televangelists get filthy rich fooling these people.

Answer 6

Morality is the guiding lines that steer your life. It is not what is good or bad, but what you can accept. The Christian morality is very different from Buddhist morality and the basic tenets are the same. Just do what you believe to be right and cause no harm to others,

Answer 7

The biggest misconception about morality is thinking that you can't be a moral person unless you believe in God.

Answer 8

The biggest misconception is that christians have any more than non-christians. People have to be pretty stupid to believe that one.

Answer 9

Well some christians seem to think it is their job to criticize the life style of homosexuals for example, but it isn't their business and they are actually being unchristian. I think it is immoral when christians try to censor people or push their view on others. I am not sure if thats what you mean.