Where Does Our Concept of Morality Come From?

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 --