What is the purpose of morality?

Well, for starters, the answer is dependent on different beliefs. I personally believe that people are above animals. One reason is because we do have morality. We, as a general human society, have standard morals that we all understand and either agree with or disagree with. People have different theories for how we developed or came to the moralities that we have today. But that is a different subject. Your question is "What is the purpose of morality". The answer to that is to keep order. Whether that system of order was given to us by a god or evolved through trial and error the answer still remains. We need morality to stay in order and to keep unified and stay strong as the human species. That is the reason for morality.

Edit-

That really isn't related to the question that much. The questions you asked in response are too outstretched from the original question. I don't even know what you were trying to say exactly. But My personal opinion on the last two questions is "no". I do not believe people could live without morals. At least not without the basic morals. I think people, without some kind of basic standard, would not be able to live. At least not in a growing multiplying society. That kind of a world without morality would be chaos. It would be only the strong survive. Only the strong carry on. That isn't the kind of world that would be fair in the eyes of morality. In the eyes of morality people should be selfless, caring, compassionate, patient, joyful, trustful, etc. Otherwise the world as we know it would collapse. Humanity would destroy itself. So I have one of my own questions for you. If humans abandoned morality there would be ultimate chaos. That is undeniable. The question though is, "Would humans cause more destruction than animals if they lived without morals? Why, what's the difference?"

My answer would be yes. I do believe humans would cause more destruction. My reason being greed and pride (I don't believe animals have these characteristics, at least not to the extent that we are). Humans are greedy and prideful, along with many other characteristics. But greed and pride when unleashed from morality are endlessly destructive. If we lived separate from morality and let our greed and pride consume us we would never stop arguing, fighting, stealing, abusing, killing, destroying anything in our individual path. I'd say we would be worse than animals only because of our greed and pride. So, another question that comes up is "where do we get our greed and pride from? Why don't animals share this characteristic with us? Are we not truly different than animals, because I say we are.

I'll stop here for now and wait for another reply. I love these kinds of debates, throw me something a bit tougher though. ;)

Edit 2-

I do not believe that self intrest is destructive. However, when moral principles are dismissed we allow ourselves to be consumed with over indulgences. When we allow our "sinful nature" to run our lives is when we start to be destructive. So if we dismis morality we are doomed to being consumed by our sinful nature. Which causes destruction.

I do not think that peaceful living is a balance between good morals and sinful nature. I believe peaceful living is advanced and lived when we abandon sinful nature and focus on developing good moral principles. I think that the generosity of time, money, energy and what not needs to come after we have what we NEED. Once each individual person has what they need then they should focus on giving generously. It's not a balance of selfishness and selflessness but having the ability to know when you have what you need and what you have left to give and being generous with it. Being ill equipped to give isn't a bad thing. But if you have the option to give then you should. So, it's not a decision of someone above yourself but taking care of your needs and then helping others with there needs.

If you have the balance of taking care of yourself without being greedy and giving generously I don't believe that being destructive to yourself is a problem. I hope that answered your question. Keep them coming!

Morality concerns itself about the behaviour of human beings especially the distinction between good and bad or right and wrong.

Human beings are sometimes not reliable. It is difficult to reform humans to make them reliable persons.

In a way animals could be regarded as more admirable than people. Although animals have no religion, they follow nature. They are only guided by the instincts for survival and never attack others except in self-defence or for food. They have no deceit.

Man needs moral standards to reduce selfishness and deceit. Man can turn and twist his mind for his own ends and to his personal advantage.

Albert Einstein once said, ' atomic energy has shaken and changed the whole world ; even the powerful atomic energy cannot change man's nature '.

Man is still as crooked, unreliable and dangerous as it has been from earliest times.

People do not really uphold the moral standards; if they do so then it should not be a problem.

Can religion change the mind for a better purpose ? or Can people uphold the religious principles ?

Humans can read and write or think and act in tandem with his purposes.

I'm going to go with Shih Tzu's thought, and take it a step further. We condition animals not to crap on the floor, and we condition each other to abide by certain moral guidelines. We can come up with our own morals, but there's little difference between the two. The similarity lies in the fact that both moral guidelines are imaginary. All that makes killing your neighbor bad is the fact that you, your neighbor, and most observers agree that that action is bad. There's a quote in nihilism that I like: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted". When it comes to moral and ethical guidelines, this quote stands true. The only ideas that are based on reality are those that we can measure using the scientific method. Everything else is false.

Yes, it could be said that animals are 'a-moral entities'. However, whereas most animal behavior is fairly analogous and expected from one being to another. The range of human behaviors expands into such a range of drastic extremes that sometimes certain behaviors are deemed acceptable/unacceptable by (the human mind's invention of) society (which nevertheless has very REAL consequences) and are trained through *queue drumroll...* 'Societal Conditioning'! Sometimes there's an obvious reason to support/inhibit perceived moral/immoral behavior through societal conditioning and sometimes it's partly/wholly based on superstition. Nevertheless, there's always the discerning belief that morals act more to enrich and balance life within society than destroy.

*Also note that the aversion of committing societal taboos inversely upholds perceived moral standards. In addition, morals are relative to the society it is encompassed by, which allows them to vary drastically from region to region and leads me to the conclusion that morals have an inherently subjective nature (which makes them very fun/controversial to talk about in philosophy).

Morality or civility are an element of the human race. Animals don't have the ability to distinguish right from wrong on a larger scale. The best they can do is not poop in the house because we conditionally teach them.

WE AS HUMANS should be able to see that there is a God of moral standards!

*** it-2 p. 15 Jehovah ***

A God of moral standards. Man early came to know Jehovah not merely as a wise and bountiful Provider but also as a God of morals, one holding to definite standards as to what is right and what is wrong in conduct and practice. If, as indicated, Adam knew the account of creation, then he also knew Jehovah had divine standards, for the account says of his creative works that Jehovah saw that “it was very good,” hence meeting his perfect standard.—Ge 1:3, 4, 12, 25, 31; compare De 32:3, 4.

--Without standards there could be no means for determining or judging good and bad or for measuring and recognizing degrees of accuracy and excellence. In this regard, the following observations from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1959, Vol. 21, pp. 306, 307) are enlightening:

“Man’s accomplishments [in establishing standards] . . . pale into insignificance when compared with standards in nature. The constellations, the orbits of the planets, the changeless normal properties of conductivity, ductility, elasticity, hardness, permeability, refractivity, strength, or viscosity in the materials of nature, . . . or the structure of cells, are a few examples of the astounding standardization in nature.”

--Showing the importance of such standardization in the material creation, the same work says: “Only through the standardization found in nature is it possible to recognize and classify . . . the many kinds of plants, fishes, birds or animals. Within these kinds, individuals resemble each other in minutest detail of structure, function and habits peculiar to each. [Compare Ge 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25.] If it were not for such standardization in the human body, physicians would not know whether an individual possessed certain organs, where to look for them . . . In fact, without natures standards there could be no organized society, no education and no physicians; each depends upon underlying, comparable similarities."

animals don't have morals, they have no sense of shame or guilt. they live in the here and now, and life with basic primitive survival instincts. morals and a conscience are not necessary for their survival. most people have a moral conscience and end up with a sense of guilt when its broken.

Moral Conscience is your inner voice which tells you whether your action is good or bad, right or wrong.

The purpose of conscience isn’t to give us the perception of moral reality that suits our preferences, but rather to help us perceive moral reality as it is—to tell us what truly is right and wrong, not to confirm us in our own ideas and wishes on the subject.

ALL theory's on morals and conscience relate to the bible, religion, the church and god. which is a bit hard to swallow if you are an atheist. i see it as your inner parent, your wiser self.

Morals is one of the things that makes us higher beings than animals.

No, even animals have a sense of propriety in animal terms. It makes us work well together instead of just being out for ourselves and not accomplishing anything and self destructing.

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