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From: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Where do morals come from
Message-ID: <2404@mcnc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 00:31:23 EST
Article-I.D.: mcnc.2404
Posted: Mon Dec 10 00:31:23 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 00:56:35 EST
References: 
Reply-To: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes)
Distribution: na
Organization: North Carolina Educational Computing Service
Lines: 26
Summary: 

In article  mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes:
>I have a question for the non-theists out there: where does the
>authority for your moral system come from?
>
>I'm particularly interested in whether you feel your system allows any
>judgement of the behavior of others.

Even as a theist (I guess) I'd have to say that my moral system comes from
my culture.  The authority (in this culture) is largely English Common Law,
extracted to some extent from a series of tracts commonly known as The
Bible.  Other cultures (a good example right now is Iran) draw on different
cultural authorities, and thus have different moral systems.

Moral systems provide a set of normative standards which circumscribe
acceptable modes of behavior.  Individuals within a society may also define
their own moral codes, usually based on some subset of the recognized set
of moral codes, and hold other members up to those standards.  It really
is a matter of taste.




-- 

						Byron C. Howes
				      ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch