Whoa. Haven’t posted in a while, due to lots of work, but I had some free time, and thought it appropriate to ramble semi-incoherently about my beliefs about right and wrong. Some would call me a moral relativist, but its more complicated that that…so here it is!
Humans, in the wild, if not brought up into a society, have no ethical or moral code. They do simply what is required by their bodies to live. They kill in the wild, they feast, and they walk about naked. This is shown in early Human nomads of the African and Sumerian regions. There was no one to tell them what was right and what was wrong. As they began to congregate together though, to form families, tribes, and other migratory groupings, these people began to create hierarchies.
There were members of the society that naturally possessed strong attributes, and as the people began to settle, these strong select few formed a social hierarchy. In order to impose order over this society, some of its members began to look to the concept of a divine force as greater motivation. They became the priests, and were placed at the top of the social hierarchy. These influential members of the early societies, notably Sumeria, were able to devise an unwritten account of those things that were not beneficial to the community as a whole, or threatening to the ruler or his state.
Thus, after the advent of writing (as a result of the need to keep accurate food records), the court system was devised. Official written codes were composed before the time of Hammurabi, but his is considered the most comprehensive of the time. As at this time the rulers were seen as representations of the gods on earth, the legal codes and the moral codes were one and the same.
It is interesting to note that the laws of Hammurabi’s time were extremely biased towards the upper classes, fining 1/2 a mina for a stolen slave but death for stolen property. At that time, there was no one telling them otherwise.
It is my belief that it is the people who “tell you otherwise” are the ones who create what is “right” and “wrong”. As societies change, attitudes about different matters change dramatically, and for one to claim there is a single right, and a single wrong, throughout all of history, is to say that everyone up to the present in history is going to hell. And in the future at some later date, no doubt people will be saying the same about the people of the present, even if they’re doing things that are today considered wrong. I just don’t get the idea that there is a universal right and wrong, and I think thinking such things leads to horrible behavior.
One can have a personal right and wrong, but isn’t it a bit selfish to impose your beliefs on the REST OF THE WORLD, and worse to claim that everyone who believes otherwise is wrong? There are most certainly people who do that. It is interesting to note though that even no two Christians are exactly alike when it comes to beliefs about right and wrong. Take a poll. The results are surprising.
It is a result of the fact that everyone is different that such universal right is so universally wrong. Now, when I refer to right and wrong, I mean moral beliefs. I think what people often do is to confuse the mathematical world with the real one. In math, there is one answer, and every other one is wrong. But this isn’t how the world works. Out of the SIX BILLION in the world, there are so many that think that they are right that to decide which one really is correct would require some kind of SUPER JUDGE. But this judge really couldn’t exist.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you agree? Disagree? Why?
Humans, in the wild, if not brought up into a society, have no ethical or moral code. They do simply what is required by their bodies to live. They kill in the wild, they feast, and they walk about naked. This is shown in early Human nomads of the African and Sumerian regions. There was no one to tell them what was right and what was wrong. As they began to congregate together though, to form families, tribes, and other migratory groupings, these people began to create hierarchies.
There were members of the society that naturally possessed strong attributes, and as the people began to settle, these strong select few formed a social hierarchy. In order to impose order over this society, some of its members began to look to the concept of a divine force as greater motivation. They became the priests, and were placed at the top of the social hierarchy. These influential members of the early societies, notably Sumeria, were able to devise an unwritten account of those things that were not beneficial to the community as a whole, or threatening to the ruler or his state.
Thus, after the advent of writing (as a result of the need to keep accurate food records), the court system was devised. Official written codes were composed before the time of Hammurabi, but his is considered the most comprehensive of the time. As at this time the rulers were seen as representations of the gods on earth, the legal codes and the moral codes were one and the same.
It is interesting to note that the laws of Hammurabi’s time were extremely biased towards the upper classes, fining 1/2 a mina for a stolen slave but death for stolen property. At that time, there was no one telling them otherwise.
It is my belief that it is the people who “tell you otherwise” are the ones who create what is “right” and “wrong”. As societies change, attitudes about different matters change dramatically, and for one to claim there is a single right, and a single wrong, throughout all of history, is to say that everyone up to the present in history is going to hell. And in the future at some later date, no doubt people will be saying the same about the people of the present, even if they’re doing things that are today considered wrong. I just don’t get the idea that there is a universal right and wrong, and I think thinking such things leads to horrible behavior.
One can have a personal right and wrong, but isn’t it a bit selfish to impose your beliefs on the REST OF THE WORLD, and worse to claim that everyone who believes otherwise is wrong? There are most certainly people who do that. It is interesting to note though that even no two Christians are exactly alike when it comes to beliefs about right and wrong. Take a poll. The results are surprising.
It is a result of the fact that everyone is different that such universal right is so universally wrong. Now, when I refer to right and wrong, I mean moral beliefs. I think what people often do is to confuse the mathematical world with the real one. In math, there is one answer, and every other one is wrong. But this isn’t how the world works. Out of the SIX BILLION in the world, there are so many that think that they are right that to decide which one really is correct would require some kind of SUPER JUDGE. But this judge really couldn’t exist.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you agree? Disagree? Why?