I think we all have moral codes. That's the way society works. Some moral codes come to us through religious groups, and some come to us through society in general. Religions may have a few more arbitrary or faith-based or unusual rules in their codes - but in general, most moral codes are more-or-less the same. Much of the time, what is "moral" is what "makes sense."

People are at different stages of moral development, and they make moral choices for different reasons. I've been pondering this a lot lately, especially with regards to the morality of litter; because I've been wondering about my 16-yr-old stepson Josh, and whether he ever will be able to pick up a piece of paper off the floor without being told to do it. His stage of moral development is distressingly low.

My dog, Ralph, loves to pick paper up off the floor. Then he tears it up and makes a bigger mess, and leaves it. Ralph has no moral development at all. I should wring his little neck, but he gets away with it because he's cute. My kids were about the same when they were two.

Somewhere around the age of three or four, you can get kids to pick things up by telling them to do it - motivating them by either threats of punishment or by creating the illusion that picking things up is fun. Moral codes don't work at this stage - only direct commands get results. Josh is still at this stage, and he's sixteen....

Now, I don't want to make it sound like my own kids were superior to my stepson, but...Somewhere in their mid-teens, my own kids began picking things up without being told to - although I think they were doing it because they believed this was something they were supposed to do, that this was some sort of moral obligation. This is where moral codes come in. In previous stages, people do things on command. In this later stage, it is at least somewhat voluntary. My kids are approaching thirty, and I think they're still mostly at this stage - although they are starting to do some really remarkable things out of a far more creative moral sense.

My wife and I pick stuff up all the time - and I think we do it because we like the world to look good. I think we do it mostly because WE want to do it, not because somebody else wants us to do it.
...or maybe we do it because our children (and dogs) have figured out that if they don't, we will.

And yes, I think you could say that people at the higher stages of moral development do things out of empathy - but I think that holds true for both religious and non-religious people.

-Joe Offer-

Somebody dumped a six-pack of beer cans at the end of our street last week. I'm still philosophizing about the situation, so I haven't gotten around to picking them up yet. I'm hoping some of the neighbors are morally superior...