I would venture the "source of morality" to be also the source of religion.
I agree, but I would add this source is also the source of law and law enforcement. I believe that the source is simply the need of social beings for a set of rules to govern social conduct, and for mechanisms to encourage compliance with these rules and punish violators.
I think you agreed that an idea can stand alone as an abstract.
Sorry, no, I can't agree with that.
I believe human beings through meditation, prayer, scriptural study, and/or via a messenger can discover the moral system that human beings need to use in order to be successful as human beings.
I notice that your list of possible sources omits practical experience of what works and what doesn't. Is there a reason for this?
Do we forbid murder, theft, and adultery because people prayed and meditated, dipped into the void and came out with the notion that these things were, in the abstract, "bad"? Or because people noticed that murder, theft, and adultery were almost always followed closely by destructive conflict within the group?
Apply Occam's Razor. Which explanation is simpler? |
