Is there a such thing as true morality? Or is it made up?

Morality evolved from pleasure and pain

Originally posted by all2human
Morality evolved from pleasure and pain

Nice idea, I like it, but I also think that the majority of morality evolved from jealousy, possessiveness and a willingness to judge others.

Originally posted by Kastogere
reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

 

Thats a simple way of putting it, only you should add that one persons morality is always most certainly different than anothers. So we group together with those who feel the same about morality as we do...say a band of thieves or a gang of prostitutes or a bunch of nuns......we all group with those who share the same base of morality. So no one sense of it is actually right or wrong...but how we percieve that which we are willing to let slide on principals that are alike in nature.

A thief would never confront another thief for stealing....a monk might, but not another thief.

I guess it really depends on your definition of such....and how far that grey area goes within the constraints of your personal morality.

Agree. And, we do not need a higher being or supreme intelligence to dictate morality to us. We have an unspoken agreement that if you don't steal from me, then I won't steal from you. You don't sleep with my wife - I won't sleep with yours. Of course, many times these agreements are broken, but they are a sin against man, not against a god.

Originally posted by arpgme
Someone was saying that if you "cheat' on your wife; you'll feel "guilt" because certain morals are "embedded" within us (by God or nature if you don't believe in a God). Anyway, what about religions that believe in polygamy, many wives? Obviously there is nothing inside of them making them feel "guilt" if they believe that this is the way it should be - divine - natural.

Is morality just relative to the religions and society we grew up in? Is there really no "good" or "evil"?


Even if we define "good" as "beneficial (productive)" and evil as "destructive (harmful)", what would justify that actually being TRUE morality?

If something is unhealthy why should that be considered "evil"? Why should cigarettes be considered "evil" just for being healthy?

To some people "good" is "whatever feel good/right" and "bad" is "whatever feels bad/wrong", but isn't that circular logic?

If we don't like something we could just say "this is unwanted" or "this is wanted" or even "this is healthy" or "this is unhealthy" but why must we attach "good" and "bad" as to seemingly give our preferences some authority?

Why is "life" considered "good" and "death" considered "bad"? If a tornado happens is that "bad"?

Things are just happening...

edit on 28-8-2012 by arpgme because: (no reason given)

edit on 28-8-2012 by arpgme because: (no reason given)

I have seen children who could barely talk show signs of morality. Such as when my niece took my nephews toys.

Now morals can be very broad, depending on the culture, but i do believe that we have them. Whether or not they come from society or God, i will not debate.

In my opinion, when people deny something that majority of people agree is wrong(such as murder) it is not a matter of morality as it is justification. No one likes to be told that what they are doing is "evil or wrong" so they use justification instead. If Joe killed Bob because Bob robbed Joe's house, is it murder? Is killing another human ever ok? Or is it ok as long as you can justify it? How about when we went to Iraq and killed how many people? Was that ok because it was right, or because the government justified it to make it ok? Is abortion ok, or do people justify it so they can convince themselves that they have done nothing wrong? If a Muslim man kills his daughter because she had sex before marriage, is it ok, or does he use the Koran as justification?

In conclusion, humans love to justify their actions, so does it really matter if morals exist or not?

reply to post by arpgme


Just do what you really want, don't do what you don't want. Its not easy. I am on this right now, its simple, its truthful, its real, its me, to know me and be me... what more can i want?

Morality for me is doing whats right for me, what feels right, my morality is what i want to do and what i don't want to do.

Originally posted by Manula
Morality for me is doing whats right for me, what feels right, my morality is what i want to do and what i don't want to do.

Atheist here. With full 100% conviction that there is no supreme guy threatening me with hell. Sooo, about an hour ago I purchased something at the store. Total about $15. I give the clerk a $20. He gives me $15 back. I show him his mistake and he is very grateful because the shortage would've come out of his pay.

Why did I do that?