where did you learn your morals and values? How did you know what was wrong and right?
I do like your moral convictions and your stance against injustice
I grew up in a reasonable sized family, two older brothers and two younger sisters. My Mum was a stickler for considering other peoples feelings. She was always going on about it, think about other people and how they might feel. Mind you, she was a Nurse, so caring for others was important to her. So as a kid, my empathy wasn't genuine, it was forced more or less. Today, I actually don't believe in genuine empathy, but I just base my thinking on how would I feel in such a situation, like that old woman crossing the street, and then make my assessment based from that.
I know that religion likes to claim that without it we would all be devoid of empathy and morality, but I happen to agree with Dawkins, in that human beings are innately moral, simply because it is what works best for the Individual, treat others like shit, and you will probably be treated like shit in return, not a very good survival strategy. Treat others well, and you increase your chances of others treating you favorably, a better survival strategy. Plus, a co-operative group can achieve more than an individual, but that also creates problems when groups with differing ideologies come in contact (that's a whole other thread)
In some ways I think religious teachings on morality can be damaging, for instance the 4th commandment 'honor thy mother and father' and the bibles sanctioning of hitting children. I think this type of rigid morality has a lot to answer for, it has created countless dysfunctional families, adults and societies. When you allow parents carte blanche to treat children in such a way, without any accountability, then you are heading for trouble. Should a child honor parents who beat them, or rape them, or neglect them etc etc.. I don't think so.
I would argue a lot of modern societies deep rooted sickness is because of horrible child rearing practises, the reality of the damage parents do to their children is hidden from almost everyone. And a lot of this is because of long held Religious ideas on child rearing. You only have to look at the Nazis, almost all of them were raised in really strict and punitive environments, and often by strict religious parents. There was a famous book written in Germany about child rearing, and the basic concept was to break the childs will before they were even aware they were alive essentially, and beat them down until they obeyed orders without even thinking. This created a generation of shut down citizens desperate to obey orders. I could go on all day about it, and the issue upsets a lot of people, as the majority reserve the right to hit children. But it's not just hitting, there are countless ways to neglect a child's needs, and it happens everywhere all the time. Anyway, that's my take on why the world is so miserable, human beings need to seriously look at their child rearing practices.
