Good morals from birth?

Question

Do you think that good morals are something we are born with o'r does the way we are brought up determine that?

Answer 1

Morals, good or otherwise, are something that has to be learned. We are all born a blank template, as far as living goes. We only know that we have basic needs, everything else has to be observed and learned.

I have noticed that people with good morals tend to have children with good morals, as children learn nearly everything from their parents. This is not always the case, though, as free will is also involved. That's how it's also possible for someone with good parents can go bad and how someone with bad parents can turn out good. (My husband is the product of two amoral people. He says he made the decision to go against them when he was a teenager and that they were his example of how not to behave.)

Answer 2

It's a combination. Morals are learned, but some people have a natural-born tendency to want to try harder than others.

For example, I have four children and have always had the same set of morals that I teach by example. One of my children always tries to do what is right (by my standards) while another one will try and get away with whatever she can. So, while both are being taught the same principles, they use that knowledge differently.

What I teach as being 'right' may be completely different than what another parent teaches as being 'right', so children in those two different families will grow up with two different sets of morals. How they use what is taught to them, though, is born with them.

Just my opinion :-)

~Kyanna

Answer 3

What most call morality is just behaviorism. We all like praise and we all dislike punishment. From our early childhood, our society praised behavior it considered appropriate and punished inappropriate behavior. As we get to be adults, we don't need direct praise, we imagine praise and that's good enough.

Some of us are more tractable than others and praise/threat of punishment works better on those individuals.

There is certainly nothing inherently good about us.

Answer 4

I think, for the most part, it's something that has to be taught. Some things come more naturally to some people, but most manners have to be taught from a young age, and made habit.

Answer 5

Depends what you call morals. Many are evolutionary, such as not liking the though of murder and so on (our species wouldn't have got very far without morals like this).

Answer 6

Morals is a learned behavior.
What was considered good morals centuries ago are
constantly changing.

Answer 7

Morals come from the environment you grow up in and live in,Now your humane nature you are born with.Like anger,
or jalousies,fear etc.

Answer 8

Now you've gone and opened the whole nature versus nurture can of worms! I think that it is both upbringing and family environment.

Answer 9

I believe it is instilled upon the child by the parents. what the parents actually practice and not what they teach influences a child's behavior later in life.

Answer 10

Some believe they are predestined. But I think it is a lot of how you are raised and how you continue your life. I wasn't raised Christian, but I found out after. I was grown and learned how it has afected my life and some have to hit the bottom before they ever seek God.