Why do right?

I have a question. I'm not sure just how much debate this will generate, but . . .why is it that many people will only do the "right" thing because of a fear of their God(s)?is doing the "right" thing just because it is, not motivation enough?i realize that we all go through a stage where this is the case. There is no doubt that I did the "right" thing when I was a young child because I did not want to be punished. Now, however, I do the "right" thing just because. why do many people never leave that original stage?

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.Although I'm not entirely sure this is the right forum for this topic, it seemed about as close as we can get without simply putting it into the coffee house. It seems legitimately related to EvC. Another admin is welcome to change the venue.Edited by AdminQuetzal, : No reason given.

Its an interesting question, Kuresu. I deal with troubled youth (Those who often do not do the right thing, and find that many of them come from families that offered scant encouragement to them and where the father figures were often absent.Having no Dad in and of itself does not mean that a kid will turn out wrong, however. I DO believe that there is a direct correlation between family love (not control) and healthy moral development.

Positive encouragement helps. I grew up with a caring family although they were far from perfect..(If that is even possible) and I additionally had at least two other mentors that helped my focus and my desire to please myself and do right simply because it was right.

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In short, I felt that I mattered in life and had enough confidence in myself that I did not give up.

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Edited by Phat, : appallin spallin

Doing the right things is a mechanism that promote our survival.Humans needed to learn to live in society to be able to survive. It is not possible to survive in society without any rules.IE : Killing member(s) of the tribe will have disastrous effect on the survavibility of the tribeAnd I don't know if fundies in general thinks that the concept of right and wrong are exclusive to us human, because it isn't so.Even my dog knows right from wrong. When I go back home and I don't see him running toward me, that because he couldnt hold it in anymore, and must of pissed somewhere in the house. He comes then slowly towards me with the tail between his legs, he knows he did wrong.It is instinct, "right" happens to be what promotes life in society and "wrong" what destroy it.

interesting take. i hadn't actually expected anyone to argue the biological/evolutionary side on it. i was thinking more in terms of moral philosophy, but I see where you're coming from. in fact, I've pretty much argued the same line as regards morality in evolution.i wonder if we've left the stage where that reasoning plays out evidently in our minds? are we in the stage where we do things for more than just biological/evolutionary reasons? or perhaps we're in the middle ground--we think we're above, but we aren't as of now?

this should do fine.oh,and welcome back Q! (please don't obliterate us humans. please?)

I dunno, but I learned while studying European History that the absolutists...who were all for Papal infallibility, divine rights of authority figures speaking for God...all that crap...often were shown up by the humanists who brought us the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.When man tries to be God, man often finds himself worse off than ever. (And when man attempts to speak for God, the same thing happens.)God or no God, we were obviously never meant to Lord it over one another. Humans progress as a group or not at all.

While I completely agree with this assessment, I think it goes a little beyond that. After all, I wouldn't feel right for us to go into another people's land, kill every man, woman, and child, and claim the land to be ours.In other words, the feeling of right and wrong also apply to what we do with other societies as well, not just our own.

Only? Which god(s) do you fear so that you will do the right thing? If people ONLY, as you say, do the right thing because of a fear of their God's, then you either don;t do anything right, or if you do, its because you fear your gods. Which is it for you? Just because, what? How can you even do the right thing until you reach a consensus on what is right? To add, I understand what you mean, but I want to see if I can draw into the deeper aspect of right and wrong and why we are either drawn to it or recoil from it. "Just because" isn't an answer.

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

Yes, I'm sure its because of your "survival" instincts that you opted not to steal the cookie from the cookie jar.

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis

Well he only says that if you ignore the word 'many' right before it, presumably Kuresu doesn't consider himself one of the many, so your first question is pretty much pointless.TTFN,WK

If he did his mum would probably kill him, sounds like survival instincts to me .TTFN,WK

Kader might have been arguing the biological/evolution side, but it looks to me that she (or he) was arguing the practical reasons for morality. She seems (to me) to be saying that we practice morality because that leads to social stability, and you benefit from a stable society.The problem with this reasoning is that it doesn't really get to the heart of morality. If you benefit from an action (or from refraining from an action), then what you are doing is not morality or ethics. In fact, one can easily come up with various scenarios (fanciful as they may be) where you can behave in a manner that may be deemed by even you to be immoral but with no adverse consequences to you (in this case, without endangering social stability).The evolution/biology explanation may explain why people might feel that there is something called morality, but it doesn't really give you any reasons why you should behave in a moral manner. Again, that is a very different question. I share my extra food with someone who is hungry because such behavior gave my ancestors a survival advantage. But why should I give a hungry person my extra food?Why people should or should not behave in certain ways is a very tricky problem, and the Christians haven't really figured it out either.

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But government...is not simply the way we express ourselves collectively but also often the only way we preserve our freedom from private power and its incursions. -- Bill Moyers (quoting John Schwarz)

First things first. I'm an atheist. Since I don't believe in god(s), I cannot fear them. (i thought you knew I was an atheist?)As I stated in the OP, i do the right thing just because. Its something I've learned to do. this question doesn't really havea bearing on the topic. It doesn't matter what right and wrong are.We are examining why we do the "right" thing (and why the wrong thing too, I guess.) ah, but it is. I don't need a reason to do the "right" thing. That's what gets me about those who say "if only I didn't fear God . . ." and the concept of sin/punishment. I don't operate on those principles, by and large, anymore. I don't see why they are doing the "right" thing because someone tells them it is. I might not be too clear here. if not, I'll try to explain better.

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If you'll read what I wrote, I covered all of the bases. Either people believe in spiritual reprisal for wrong doing, which is their motive to do good, according to Kuresu-- or-- they do good, "just because." What am I supposed to derive from that?

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"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis