I seem to be on singular path right
now. A conversation with an avowed
atheist got me thinking about what is moral and what is immoral, in these
days of rationalization. As I said in my
previous post, according to most modern theories, where God is removed from the
equation, “Morality is the
product of the evolutionary development of man, and society. Morality is
always relative and never absolute.”
If we assume this is true, where and
how do we learn what the moral standards for our society are? What is the basis for our own moral
judgements, and how does society change its views? I don’t know how many people
spend much time thinking about this, but I have. From those times; I’ve formed a number of
opinions. Some are researched, others
just based on the empirical observations of life around me.
Back in the olden days of my
youth I think the family was the principle basis for passing along the moral
education of society. Today we call that
familiar process “White Privilege” because our society has done a wonderful job
of destroying the Black Family. Even
then, not all families were deeply religious, those that were may have done a
better job of instilling faith into the children, but my experience is a good
church (I don’t assume all churches are good), built upon the work of the parents,
it could not substitute for it, only supplement the foundational basis for
moral judgement.
But what happens when the parents
have a sense of morality that differs from society’s? What I’ve observed is, for the large
percentage those differences are accepted by the children and incorporated into
their own moral standards. The groups
become sub-cultures within the larger context of the nation. For example, the gypsies are infamous in
Europe for a society that crosses national boundaries. It has its own moral code, that is often at
odds with the various civil cultures and laws.
Consider the growth of the Moron
Church from its founding until the push for the statehood of Utah. Polygamy was a morally acceptable aspect of
life. It wasn’t until the statehood issue
that the church had to acquiesce to the more normally accepted concept of
marriage. Funny how now that we are
changing that concept of what marriage is, the Mormons are again being
criticized for not accepting the right value.
So, I believe the parents and
extended family are the most basic teachers of morality for children, but who
else plays a role, and what about those crazy teenage years as a young person
begins to really explore and define his or her own personality, and personal
belief set? As they move away from their
parents who fills in the missing spaces?
-- To be continued --
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