Teaching Morality

[KarateCowboy]

"To educate a man in mind and not in morality is to educate a menace to society"


-Theodore Roosevelt


All the nation's best leaders have understood the importance of people learning to behave morally. In the establishment of the Midwest it was actually noted that religion and morality should be taught alongside science and history in school and are necessary for the making of good citizens. Cool beans huh? Maybe we should let God and Aesop back in the classroom. Then maybe we won't have the Trenchcoat Mafia. Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

 

[MemeBuster]

"Human moral codes are the product of centuries of human experience; gods' men plagiarize the lessons learned from collective human experience as attribute them to their gods, often without adding much value themselves. This is why we do not find anything useful in the Ten Commandments that people of the time did not already know." - Me

 

[TuxThePenguin]

Mu

 

[KarateCowboy]

"Human moral codes are the product of centuries of human experience; gods' men plagiarize the lessons learned from collective human experience as attribute them to their gods, often without adding much value themselves. This is why we do not find anything useful in the Ten Commandments that people of the time did not already know." - Me

So, basically you are saying that it is obvious, and we do not need divine revelation, to know that there is only one God whom we shall have no other gods before, and that we should not bow to graven images; it is obvious from human experience? High five!

 

[flicka]

I think there are some very basic things we should be stressing from a young age that can be applied across the board when people are faced with moral dilemmas. Things such as respect for other peoples health and welfare and feelings, respect for other peoples property, respect for self, etc. To get much more specific than that though is going to be tough.

 

[Electric Skeptic]

"All the nation's best leaders have understood the importance of people learning to behave morally. In the establishment of the Midwest it was actually noted that religion and morality should be taught alongside science and history in school and are necessary for the making of good citizens. Cool beans huh? Maybe we should let God and Aesop back in the classroom. Then maybe we won't have the Trenchcoat Mafia. Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

It is certainly important for poeple to study morality, including relativism.

Unfortunately, in any discussion of morality, the biblical god will only feature as an example of what not to do.

 

[quatona]

"To educate a man in mind and not in morality is to educate a menace to society"


-Theodore Roosevelt


All the nation's best leaders have understood the importance of people learning to behave morally.

So have the worst leaders.

In the establishment of the Midwest it was actually noted that religion and morality should be taught alongside science and history in school and are necessary for the making of good citizens.

Where I live, ethics&morality is a distinct subject in school. Which doesn´t necessarily mean "biblegod", "Aesop", "Roosevelt" or "KarateCowboy".

Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

First and foremost this is a false dichotomy.

 

[wanderingone]

I don't know why you need God to teach personal responsibility in the classroom. The notion of certain things being good for the community is not absent from the classroom, at least not in my area of the world.

People seem to think that accepting diversity in the community means moral relativism. Nobody in the classroom taught the trenchcoat mafia to BE the trenchcoat mafia.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I'd rather teach people how to think about morality, so that they are capable of asking ethical questions and pondering them. This would include exposing people to moral relativism, though would not be limited to this.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[KarateCowboy]

I don't know why you need God to teach personal responsibility in the classroom. The notion of certain things being good for the community is not absent from the classroom, at least not in my area of the world.

People seem to think that accepting diversity in the community means moral relativism. Nobody in the classroom taught the trenchcoat mafia to BE the trenchcoat mafia.

Hmm, well, it seems these days that 'diversity' has become a trojan horse.

 

[David Gould]

Which 'morality' would you teach? I vote the Old Testament one, which allows us to kill anyone working on Sunday. All those priests would be in for a stoning ...

 

[Silent Bob]

Maybe we should let God and Aesop back in the classroom.

And Kant, Bentham, Nietzsche and Satre.

Then maybe we won't have the Trenchcoat Mafia. Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

If you live in a society that needs to be taught that murder is wrong then run for the hills!

There have been and will always be those who snap in response to pressure, harasment and neglect and there are those who just snap. Teaching that mass murder is bad (m'kay?), as if the trenchcoat mafias of the world don't know it, hoping that they will hesitate is an exercise in futility.

 

[CrusaderKing]

The core of the issue is defining just what "not hurting anyone" means. In terms of Christian morality, we learn that we should not steal, commit adultery, murder, slander, gossip, etc. Essentially, it calls upon us to be merciful, patient and be more loving. The real kicker is that God is required in our (Chrisitan) lives to inspire us (hence the necessity of worship and prayer in Christian life) to do these things better.

 

[Lynden1000]

"To educate a man in mind and not in morality is to educate a menace to society"


-Theodore Roosevelt


All the nation's best leaders have understood the importance of people learning to behave morally. In the establishment of the Midwest it was actually noted that religion and morality should be taught alongside science and history in school and are necessary for the making of good citizens. Cool beans huh? Maybe we should let God and Aesop back in the classroom. Then maybe we won't have the Trenchcoat Mafia. Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

Well it sounds like a swell idea, until a teacher comes along who decides to teach your child a morality that you don't agree with.

Like a vegetarian teacher who tells your child that eating meat is akin to murder

Or a Catholic teacher who tells a student that his parents are living in a state of sin because they are divorced and remarried.

Or a muslim teacher who tells the students that it's morally wrong to eat pork.

Or to use a nonreligious example, what about a teacher who tells your child that war is always morally wrong..or that if their parents spank them, this is morally wrong and they should tell the police?

 

[RealSorceror]

Well it sounds like a swell idea, until a teacher comes along who decides to teach your child a morality that you don't agree with.

Like a vegetarian teacher who tells your child that eating meat is akin to murder

Or a Catholic teacher who tells a student that his parents are living in a state of sin because they are divorced and remarried.

Or a muslim teacher who tells the students that it's morally wrong to eat pork.

Or to use a nonreligious example, what about a teacher who tells your child that war is always morally wrong..or that if their parents spank them, this is morally wrong and they should tell the police?

Right on. Teaching kids a specific set of moral codes will ultimitley just cause more problems.
As many people have already pointed out, teaching kids how to think about morality, and teaching them basic principles such as respect, would be far more productive.
Or heck, we could just let the parents teach their kids about morality.

 

[armyman_83]

Those who say that we shouldn't judge others morals, are making a moral judgement themselves.

 

[BigBadWlf]

"To educate a man in mind and not in morality is to educate a menace to society"


-Theodore Roosevelt


All the nation's best leaders have understood the importance of people learning to behave morally. In the establishment of the Midwest it was actually noted that religion and morality should be taught alongside science and history in school and are necessary for the making of good citizens. Cool beans huh? Maybe we should let God and Aesop back in the classroom.

And Allah and Buddha and Confucius and White Buffalo Woman and Lao Tzu and Krishna and Athena and Isis and Astarte….

Then maybe we won't have the Trenchcoat Mafia. Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

Do you mean teach ethics…or do you mean YOUR particular views of morality?

 

[quatona]

Those who say that we shouldn't judge others morals, are making a moral judgement themselves.

And?

 

[armyman_83]

And?

Sorry I figured people would read that and say---who----Hypocrits (and thus bad)?

I guess I thought some people would have figured it out.

 

[Stinker]

"To educate a man in mind and not in morality is to educate a menace to society"


-Theodore Roosevelt


All the nation's best leaders have understood the importance of people learning to behave morally. In the establishment of the Midwest it was actually noted that religion and morality should be taught alongside science and history in school and are necessary for the making of good citizens. Cool beans huh? Maybe we should let God and Aesop back in the classroom. Then maybe we won't have the Trenchcoat Mafia. Do you agree that it is important for people to study morality instead of relativism?

According to the historical evidence up till now here in the U.S. it sure looks like we should.

The evidence for this (I think anyway) comes from all the secret decisions that are now being made behind closed doors all across our once great nation.

These decisions are benefiting only those 'at the top' at the expense of the taxpayers. So teaching that we should all be moral without any divine accountability is useless. We are not able to even come close to functioning as a community or nation as we should because according to all the negative evidence.....we are not alone....supernaturally.