Basically, how do you think morality originated? What is the "basis" for morality?

Do you think people have an innate sense of "right" and "wrong"? Do you believe right and wrong come in absolute forms, or are they relative to individuals and culture?

Your thoughts?

I think republicans invented it

Ugh I gotta go to bed so I can't stay and debate like I'd prefer, but personally I believe that it's relative and that humans have no innate sense of right and wrong outside of possibly pain stimuli and other such physical reactions.

Wow!

Great question!!!! Never thought about that one.

In most respects I believe it to be "taught" in most cases. I think there can be some however, who have an innate sense. Those with a bit more intellect.

So I think both play roles, but mostly depends on the individual.

Great question!

I think a lot of it has to do with culture and then the individual's personal taste. In America we consider it morally "wrong" to walk around naked. Tribes in Africa consider this perfectly acceptable and find nothing wrong with it at all. The Greeks often created artwork based around the naked human body (predominately female as they considered it beautiful and perfect) yet in order to be able to study such art in American schools you have to get a parental permission slip signed because it is considered to be controversial.

It just depends on what is socially acceptable, individually acceptable and, in some cases, what is acceptable within a person's personal religion (whatever that might be.)

don't go to bed without saying goodnight

The morality of kill your brother and beat your wife and kids

as long as no performance enhancing drugs were used...

I think morality is something we are taught

well look who showed up just in time to guilt trip me! hey shoes


Scinn - do you think maybe it's possible that those other cultural approaches might be "immoral" according to a universal standard? does acceptance by a certain group of people make something "moral?"

Morality is subjective. Right and wrong is subjective to a society. There are universal rights and wrongs such as killing others that should be complete consensus but even that can be subjective as with the death penalty. Killing is moral in some societies in that instance.

Morality is actually developed by a group or town or nation of people that decide through agreement what is moral and just. Some use religion for their choices others use the intelligence of the community. If you consider that in some societies marriage age is 14 or so and others it is 18 or over, this is a moral decision made by the community. Different states here in the US have different laws for the marriage age of youngsters. This is a moral judgement. Sexual consent is a moral decision made different per state here in the US.

It may be tought now, but who invented what was right and wrong?....Honestly that could only be answered with how you are raised...you know someone people let their do whatever they want and others are more protective. Who's right? Who's wrong? I think it orriginated in the beggining. Everyone has an opinion on whether ir not anything is moral.

Yeh, what she said...and then some!

Me personally...no. I don't think there is a "universal" code for morality. I think it's based upon regions, etc.

I’m totally convinced that I have always had a very solid innate sense of really great morality. And I might also add that my sense of good morals do not conform with any ‘officially’ proclaimed moral laws that may have been carved in stone or written in any doctrines or anything else.

I’m 58 years old now, and my morals haven’t changed one iota since I was very young. As I say, they were innate and therefore not subject to logical analysis or change. Looking back over my life now I wish I would have lived by own innate sense of morality. Unfortunately, I wasn’t true to myself in an attempt appease the ‘god’. And because of this I suffered.

If I had my life to live over again I would follow my heart instead of any dogma. In hindsight I can see that my heart was true, and the dogma was false. Unfortunately, I can’t now go back and re-live my life correctly. I committed the gravest sin of all. I was untrue to myself to appease a false God. I was taught to worship an idol by my culture and I paid dearly for worshiping the false manmade idol of the God of Abraham.

It seems like most people on here believe that morality is taught by a cultural standpoint, which I believe that there is something to that. Although I believe that everybody has an inner sense of what is right and wrong that varies from person to person. However people will go along with something they believe is wrong based on the society they are in, Whether it be that they want to just fit in or they are fearful of retaliation if they differ from the viewpoints of others.

So in a sense morality is taught but on a much lower scale than what someone knows in their heart to be right. There has always been a sense of what is right and what is wrong and people choose whether or not to listen to thier inner self. It just seems that the level of morality a society has is based on who is in charge of that society at any given time. I know what I believe to be moral and immoral and I also know that my views differ from that of some of my friends. However, we all have to follow the same laws or face the consequeces