MORALITY: what is it really?

by Terry 60 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Terry

  What is morality? How is it different from ethics? Do we just make it all up to suit our fancy?

  Morality is a code of personal values. Those values are intended to guide all choices and actions.

  Choices and actions (made according to our values) determine the purpose and course of our life.

  Ethics, as a science, deals with discovering and defining such a code.

  Why does man need a code of values?

  1.If survival is necessary; rules of survival are necessary.

  Can we eat a poisonous fish and survive? The Japanese do because they have rules for removing the poison glands.

  Some people survive better than others. Their rules are better and their understanding is superior.

  2. Thinking and productive work are essential to survival. Correct thinking and beneficial labor improve the conditions of life.

  Irrational thinking leads people to waste their time and their actions produce little of benefit. If you have ever watched Cops or the Jerry Springer show you know what kind of people these are. Alcoholics, druggies, risk-takers apply unproductive values to their actions and personal chaos results as a consequence.

  3.To live is an act of choice. By not ending life we choose it. Somewhere in between it is the __quality__of life that is at stake.

  The purpose of MORALITY is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live a healthy and prosperous life.

  4.Wrong actions are the result of poor thinking and personal rules that simply don't work

  Immorality is acting on rules that don't work. The results are destructive because the human is at conflict with reality. Reality inflicts real damage.

  5. There are 2 sides to every issue: one side is right (it works) and other is wrong (doesn't work), but the _middle_is always evil.

  A man can find he is wrong and still respect the truth, accept responsibility of wrong choice. The man who is right needs make no apology. But, the man in the middle is the joker who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or value exists.

  6.Man must choose his actions, values and goals by the standard of that which is __proper__(i.e. it works) to man--in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own fruitful and comfortable life (that works).

  What are your views on morality?
• 

  gumby

  Terry....it's too damn early on a Saterday mornin to expect anyone to be coherant enough to answer this. Give me 4 or 5 hours....would ya?

  * starts thinkin Terry might just be Ghandi resurrected*

  Gumby
• 

  codeblue

  ditto Gumby

  help............I need another cup of coffee!!!!!!!!!!
• 

  gumby

  Codeblue.....you gotta remember, Terry's an old bastard and these guys go to bed at 8:00 at night and get up at 4:00 AM. By 9:00 AM....he's already as perky as a damn jackrabbit!

  Gumby
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  Terry

  I'm about as perky as roadkill!
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  Annanias

  Morality, my views? Okay, I'll bite. Morality is not man made. It is immutable, discoverable, natural. Like gravity or orbital mechanics, it is the same everywhere in the universe. As with orbital mechanics, (we can chose to believe that the planets and stars are held in place by being part of giant crystal spheres, or we can understand this thing called gravity and how that works on free bodies in space) reality often seems to run counter to "emperical" data. Our "western" civilization has set up a belief structure based upon the premise that a higher power has chosen to give us all of the moral truths in the universe, while other civilizations tend to lean toward the experimentation or empirical, thus conjuring up the idea of "attaining" various levels of "consciousness" or "existence" thru strictly mental processes or of constant rebirthing. Personally, I lean towards the former, but then, I'm a product of western culture.
• 

  Terry

  Yep, morality is unavoidable. As you say; as unavoidable as gravity. We ignore the "rules" at our own risk. If we format a disc before we use it we don't think of it as morality; but, it is.

  Doing what must be done in order to accomplish a useful purpose is morality. It is as observable as anyting in nature.

  I agree.
• 

  Pole

  One criterion which is implicit in all morality for me at least at the theoretical level is:

  the criterion of harm .

  The question whether this or that action is moral can always be rephrased by: does this or that action harm anyone?

  Of course, the difficulty is when we are given a choice and we have to decide how much harm is going to be done if we chose one solution over another. Sometimes the long term effects of an action have to be considered. But, still the criterion of harm applies. It all boils down to the concept of harm.

  This approach helps us see through religious dogma. It is based on the unquestionable, ultimate natural law, because it is the most pragmatic approach to morality.

  It is redundant, counter-productive and sometimes just harmful :) and to try to establish any other sources of of morality in general. I hope people trapped in totalitarian relligions and states will understand this one day.
• 

  logansrun

  Terry,

  You're threads are starting to sound like Awake! cover articles, dude!

  "Emotions: Do We Understand Them?"

  "Morality: What Is It Really?"

  What's next -- "The Enviornment: Who Will Save It?"??
• 

  Terry

  Logansrun says: Terry,

  You're threads are starting to sound like Awake! cover articles, dude!

  "Emotions: Do We Understand Them?"

  "Morality: What Is It Really?"

  What's next -- "The Enviornment: Who Will Save It?"??

  ********************************************************************************************************

  Article: LOGANSRUN: spoiling for a fight?