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This question came up in my ethics class this morning, and I found that many people had a hard time answering it. Are we moral because of some ingrained doctrine that have been passed down the generational tree, or are we moral because we feel obligated to be? Are we moral in order to secure our place in a Heaven? Why are YOU moral. Really, really think about it and answer it based your true feelings and thoughts...
@SarahFlashing Sarah! You trickster!! I got this from our class this weekend!! LOL!!!
because someone had to stand against that immoral old bat, Mother Teresa...
I used to try to be moral because of religious beliefs.
As I get older and kinda wiser,
I find my behavior leans more toward "moral" naturally,
the more I love, the more I understand natural consequences,
the more I want happiness and no issues,
the better I become.
And I don't mean better as in "better than..."
I mean it as in I improve.
Saw a tv show this a.m. which claimed morality was controlled by a specific area of the brain. The area (they gave a name but I forgot) is noticibly smaller in psychopaths.
Because the choices in my life lead me to be happy or unhappy. Being what I see to be someone who is moral leads me to be happy.
Being what I see to be a good person has nothing to do with some invisible parent figure. And I really think that being moral without the pressure from some "God" as the reason is important.
It does presuppose the question, what is the good? what is the moral? If you can answer the "what is" question, you can then proceed to the "why."
Erin, I still say it's a worldview driven question. Why be moral? Depends on what you believe. An atheist is going to have a different basis than a Christian or a Muslim. And like I already said, "why" presupposes an understanding of what is the good. My ultimate point is, there is no real ethical common ground.