Namely, where do you personally think morals come from? I had a large heated discussion with a religious friend where he said that morals can only come from the words of God and the teachings of the Bible. I disagreed, putting forward the point that morals come from within, to benefit overall human survival i.e we feel wrong to kill because it is against our instincts to be counter-productive against human survival, something perhaps stemmed from the savages we all once were, rather than being taught that killing is wrong from a passage in a book.
But what do you believe. What makes a good person, good?
Hi, thanks for your kind words. I really appreciate it.
In regards to your last question: I think it lies in a combination of genes and environment. I think initially the genes decide, but that environment can enhance or in some cases change what the genes have defined.
I believe true universal morality is something that can be discovered via scientific methods. It is defined by what benefits humanity, both physically (like keeping someone alive), and mentally (what keeps us happy and productive). I think we are in a pretty organic fashion converging on a functioning universal morality - but it’s being pushed in various directions by the various religions in the world. Until we can take a wholly rational approach I think we’ll continue to have conflicting ideas of what constitutes morality, and thus continue to have violence and crimes on a grand scale.
Like everything in history, all this swings back and forth a little like a pendulum - and like a pendulum, we’ll eventually end up in the middle.
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