What is Morality?

[CaptainFritz28]

As above.

I define it as the standard of good and evil that determines the rewards or punishments that follow acting good or evil.

Before you respond to my definition, I ask that you list your own, so that we may all understand where each is coming from. I may ammend my definition through the course of this thread.

[JustAGuyNamedWill]

Morality is what compels me to hate the big corporations.

[JustAGuyNamedWill]

Morality is what compels me to hate the big corporations.

Jokes aside, morality is a self defined set of beliefs that governs your actions and the policies you place on yourself.

[CaptainFritz28]

Interesting. So you believe morality is what each of us makes it?

If yes, what should happen when two people oe groups have conflicting moral views, as with Palestine and Israel?

[brian146]

well then in this case and most cases they fight.

[Jamiet99uk]

Interesting. So you believe morality is what each of us makes it?

If yes, what should happen when two people oe groups have conflicting moral views, as with Palestine and Israel?

They aren't fundamentally fighting over morality, are they?

They are fighting over land.

[Jamiet99uk]

The the OP, my definition of "morality" is simply "the difference between right and wrong".

[Jamiet99uk]

To the OP, my definition of "morality" is simply "the difference between right and wrong".

ebwop

[brian146]

yes but they justfiy it by saying palestine as the very bad people. not saying they are but i have heard people say they are.

[Jamiet99uk]

yes but if you look at it a lot of people see palestine as the very bad people. not saying they are but i have heard people say they are

That is a question of others making a moral judgement. I'm sure all good Christian girls and boys remember what Matthew 7 says about being judgmental.

[brian146]

yes and a moral judgment is based your morality.

[JustAGuyNamedWill]

Interesting. So you believe morality is what each of us makes it?

If yes, what should happen when two people oe groups have conflicting moral views, as with Palestine and Israel?

They aren't fundamentally fighting over morality, are they?

They are fighting over land.

I think they believe that it is their moral obligation to take the land away from the heretics, both believing it to be the other.

[CaptainFritz28]

The the OP, my definition of "morality" is simply "the difference between right and wrong".

I can agree with that.

[CaptainFritz28]

Interesting. So you believe morality is what each of us makes it?

If yes, what should happen when two people oe groups have conflicting moral views, as with Palestine and Israel?

They aren't fundamentally fighting over morality, are they?

They are fighting over land.

They are fighting over land, yes. And each side believes it is their moral right to have that land, and that it is a moral wrong for the other side to have that land.

[CaptainFritz28]

yes but if you look at it a lot of people see palestine as the very bad people. not saying they are but i have heard people say they are

That is a question of others making a moral judgement. I'm sure all good Christian girls and boys remember what Matthew 7 says about being judgmental.

Presumably you are referring to Matthew 7:1-2?
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
What Jesus is saying is fairly simple here. It's just the golden rule, applied to judgement.

[Johnny Big Horse]

Morality can be viewed two ways:
1. From the point of the individual. It is, as was said, a set of guidelines and beliefs that guide your life.
2. From the point of the society, it is a common code of conduct that is necessary for the society to work together and not devolve into a mad max dystopia.

(I have been writing about this stuff...here is an excerpt)

Regarding Groups and Morality:
People praise actions advantageous to the group (compassion, patience, tolerance, leadership, etc.), and call them virtues, while condemning those activities injurious to the group (selfishness, debauchery, drunkenness, etc.). In the 1750s, Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771), an influential French Enlightenment thinker, claimed that there is no innate moral sense, rather one’s moral sense is derived from the groups one is a member of, one’s family, one’s community, one’s government, and one’s church. Morality is “the science of the means invented by men to live together in the happiest manner.” Our morality arises from the group. We are a social animal. We work best in groups, but for the group to survive, we must conform, so we are programmed with morality. We are praised for actions that support the group.

This might explain why different civilizations have conflicting ideas of how to live an ideal life. Different groups, due to their histories, climates, religions, and types of knowledge, each have different moralities. If we are to believe this, then morality is not associated with humanity itself, as the other theories suggested. Nurture beats Nature!

This theory could explain the savage peoples like the Vikings, the Homeric Greeks and the Mongols, who prized savagery and prowess over empathy and mercy. An army of Christ’s would not be as victorious on the battlefield as a drunken, thoughtless, bloodthirsty army.

[Johnny Big Horse]

More on Morality....

Others argue that morality is ingrained into our minds, but that it appeared as a byproduct of natural selection. Animals and societies that are more cohesive are more effective at dominating the environment. Our morality is useful to the species to survive and reproduce. Societies that advocate immoral behavior such as theft or murder would kill themselves off, reducing the capability of the human race to reproduce. These immoral societies would be reduced to a Mad Max type of dystopian world. According to Michael Ruse (born 1940), a contemporary Canadian philosopher, “morality is an illusion put in place by your genes to make you a social cooperator.” We are humans “with [our] gene-based psychology working flat out to make [us] think [we] should be moral.” “ Morality … is not something handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is something forged in the struggle for existence and reproduction, something fashioned by natural selection. It is as much a natural human adaptation as our ears or noses or teeth.”

[brian146]

cool

[CaptainFritz28]

So then, the question remains: what do you do when different societies have different views on what is best for their society, or when different societies believe that the eradication of another society is best for their own, but the other society believes the opposite? How about when individuals have different views on what would make society better?

If I believe murder is wrong, and advocate for outlawing it, but another person believes it is good, and should be allowed, what do we do? Should they be allowed to murder me in order to legalize murder? Society is built up of individuals, which you claim each has their own moral standard. Who determines the moral standard used by society? You cannot separate society from the individual.

Is your claim that might makes right? That whomever may force their morality on others is morally superior? That would justify slavery, war crimes, theft, murder, government officials assassinating others and taking bribes, etc.
All you have advocated for is what was tried after the French Revolution, which only lead to anarchy, death, and chaos. It was tried after the Russian Revolution, which only led to the USSR and one hundred million dead. Are these justified for creating their moral standards that they believed were best for society and then forcing those on others?

[Jamiet99uk]

Interesting. So you believe morality is what each of us makes it?

If yes, what should happen when two people oe groups have conflicting moral views, as with Palestine and Israel?

They aren't fundamentally fighting over morality, are they?

They are fighting over land.

I think they believe that it is their moral obligation to take the land away from the heretics, both believing it to be the other.

I don't believe that is true.

The Palestinians want their homes back because the Israelis stole them by force.