<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I believed that ethics and morals were like natural laws that came
> from God to mankind through the scriptures in each culture.
>
> Now I believe that we choose our ethics while shaped by our reason
> and our social contract with others. Much of this was created in
> our primate past as we learned the value of the group and the
> behaviors necessary to live together.
>
> I think under each point of view some people act ethically and some
> do not. I don't know which is more effective for helping people act
> in a kind way towards others. I just know what point of view I
> hold and I do my best from that perspective.
>
> So what do you believe?
I think the scriptural ideas of morality reflect the
ethics of the cultures for which the scriptures were
written. I think there *may* be some innate human
sense that shapes and reinforces ethical behavior,
and is perpetuated because it's been found to work, but
where that sense came from, I couldn't say. I wouldn't
rule out that it comes from an inherent "orderliness"
(in the very-big-picture sense) from which the
universe emerged and which humans intuit.
But the "rules" put forth in scripture that are said
to have been laid down by God I think are just a
(relatively clumsy) approximation of what we intuit of
that "orderliness."
With that one caveat--that ethical behavior may arise
from some intuition of an abstract "natural law" (but
coming through humans, not some divine lawgiver)--I agree
with everything else you said.
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