If there wasn’t a God, where does the desire to be moral come from?
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Having raised three boys from infancy, I am fairly sure it comes from being imprinted into developing personalities through example, education and outright bribery.
Not proud of the bribery, but it works...
Without the education, the example, the pleading to 'stop setting your brother on fire, I'll give you a cookie,' we're all just self-centered beasts gnawing on each other's bones...
Where god fits in this cycle is left to the student.
Empathy, the willingness to treat others with respect in return for receiving it from others, a realization that abusing others harms the group..... Fear of punishment by an invisible being doesn't enter into it; fear breeds resentment and a desire to escape the cause of the fear.
Reading up, mixture of reciprocal altruism and kin selection.
So altruism weakens us and individuals, but gives us advantages as a species. You see some of it in wolves when they risk more in a hunt than by hanging back, but only get to eat if they participate. It increases survival possibilities.
Kin selection means that we are more likely to trust people who are trustworthy. If a person demonstrates willingness to help others, they are more likely to be made kin.’ This increases their own likelihood of survival.
So, basically, morality derives from survival
If there wasn’t a God, where does the desire to be moral come from?
From ourselves. We can be moral, because we can . Also, laws via secular democratic governments.
Considering Hosea 13:16, I'd say that your 'Pro-Life' cause's right to exist being aborted in 1973 via Roe vs. Wade: six years earlier in Britain is the least of your problems. We're only following your own 'God's moral example, are we not...?!
Because if he can kill with impunity: and without judgement ...!
Empathy and the concept of 'treating others as we'd like to be treated' (as our brains grew bigger we became capable of abstract thought) were traits that were helpful for a social species and that our bodies, or social units, found adaptive when we were...
EVOLVING.
[watches OP melt at the word.]
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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