Where do our morals come from?

Question

Why the angry little stance, smarty pants?

Answer 1

Mushrooms....???????

Answer 2

I would say the stronges influence at a young age comes from our parents.

Then we go to school and I would say our morality comes from our teachers.

It isn't long before we start paying more attention to our peers than our teachers, and then our morality comes from our friends.

But, the older you get the more you see in life until you start forming your own ideas about morality based on what you've seen in your life.

If someone doesn't care enough to look for morality, or if they're too hurt to care, then their growth will be stunted back in stages when it was defined by others.

I should also mention that if a person follows a church then their morality will be strongly (to varying degrees depending on the church and how they respond to it) affected by that.

But, a healthy person will eventually develop their own sense of morality. Which is why those that do generally agree on the same issues; Murder is wrong, greed is bad, blame is unproductive and hate is destructive.

Essentially, morality is our understanding of how to protect life itself. Since some things work and others don't, there is a defined right and wrong. And since we are human, and capable of errors, not everyone is right all the time.

Answer 3

I have spent much of the last two years thinking about just this question. A born again brother-in-law raised it at Thanksgiving those two years ago. This is the short version of what I have concluded:

I can clearly discern two kinds of morals, individual morals and group morals. We could call these Character and Social Code respectively.

Character is driven by strong internal impulses such as compassion and family bonding. These could be called instincts. They include a variety of behaviors which control our behavior inside of the group dynamic. They improve the chance of our group’s survival, thus improving the chance of our gene’s continuance.

Social Codes have a more complex origin. It appears that they are learned behaviors that come from societal practices that behave in many ways like genes do. Societies which proliferate behaviors which strengthen them prosper and survive.

You might add to these two kinds of morals, Ethics. I would call them the application of reason to Character and Social Codes.

Answer 4

The current moral zeitgeist comes from a variety of sources. Many derive such morals from select Biblical passages and the majority of the NT. Morals are largely influenced by the group thought of a particular society. A change in morals comes through societal leadership that is widely backed. Morals are encoded unto the next generation through parents, laws, and community relationships. (i.e. basic human interaction) The newest source that effects our morals today is the media.

Answer 5

Morals are entirely based upon societal norms within a group. What is "moral" in one group, is not "moral" in another. I watched an arabic show on morals about two months ago where the group believed that it was immoral to not "correct" your wife because the Koran tells you to. The group saw beating your wife as a "moral responsibility" based upon societal norms of that group. Within the context of our western societies, even the idea of agreeing with such conduct is appauling to us, let alone considering it a "moral responsibility". Within a rich community, Christians can consider their financial success to be sanctioned by their faith, but if you include poor people in the same group, the poor people will easily point out how many times Jesus was against any kind of worldly wealth. "Moral" depends upon where you are standing, and what the common beliefs are within your social group.

Answer 6

Most of our society's morals actually come from the Bible...

In fact, it would be quite a surprise to many people to see just how many of our moral sayings or rules, and even the laws of our governments come straight out of the Good Book!

Now, I must honestly say that for most people, we DO get our morals from our parents, or in some cases, from choosing the opposite of what our parents tried to teach us... So, this shows the great responsibility of parents to have a good foundation and background for what they are teaching, both actively and passively to their children...

There's no better source in the world than the Bible, and everyone can be sure they are getting the right answers from it!

Answer 7

I got mine from watching the Three Stooges when I was little....


Edit: Bettie, I wonder why Smarty Pants insulted you? You are beautiful. *shrugs*

Answer 8

Either you have them, or you don't. I suspect they come from society, starting with the family. Children learn from birth. I don't believe that morals were handed down from some great book or god or anything crafty like that. It is the family's job to teach interpersonal skills or life skills, and your morals would be there.

Answer 9

The foundation of morals and moral law are based in the New Testament..........
Morals are based also on the environment that a person is raised in and the conscience and ethical standards. Based on different groups of people morals can very in importance as seen in their perspective............Morals are based on a persons concept of "right" and "wrong"

Answer 10

Basically, the first morals we know are from our parents and the people around us. But as we grow, we start judging our morals from whatever sources they are and drop some of them. SO ultimately its what we have left that are really our morals.

Answer 11

Morals comes from the God that is inside of us. when the Lord created us he said make man in his image and morals seem to be part of that image. plus the world has rules on how to act in today's life so be blessed