Quote:
Originally Posted by AChimp
Morality is just a set of behaviours that have been deemed acceptable and desirable by social norms that have evolved over time. What is moral for one group of people may not be moral for another; the only reason for this is differences in how various cultures have developed.
Part of the influence on this is religion, but "what's good for society to keep running" is also a major player in defining morality (even then, religion is just a tool for enforcing a prescribed set of social rules). It's not beneficial for a society to let people run around killing each other, hence why everyone thinks that killing people is wrong and the people who don't agree are labelled psychopaths. Wrap killing another person in the blanket of "self-defence" and suddenly it becomes acceptable, if not necessarily desirable.
|
I think I'm with achimp on this one. We all live in a society where we interact with people who interact with people who interact with people. What their morals are to a degree affect what your morals are, Religion is just another leaf in that tree. Religion is a set of moral guidelines which were the foundation of society at one point, and has been shaved down until now it's just a band in the rainbow.
For all the people saying religion has not affect their morality, it doesn't directly. But you guys haven't lived in an atheist society that has isolated itself from cultures with religion in them.
But at the same time it didn't start with religion, it was just solidified by it. I'm sure it was frowned upon to covet thy neighbors wife before the ten commandments, I know that there are things in religion that were responses to what was already happening in society.
I do believe though that some of the morals that have with stood time such as rape, murder, theft; have a little bit more lasting power than a 1000 years