Babies Have Morals

http://m.cbsnews.com/postwatch.rbml?pageType=video&cbsID=50135408

So There’s an article too if you can’t watch at work, will post it later.

But basically researchers have seen babies identify some foundations of morality.

How does this happen?

[quote]therajraj wrote:

How does this happen?[/quote]

Because it isn’t relative?

I caught most of this on 60 mins with the wife on Sunday. Interesting, but not surprising.

Or maybe we evolved to favour certain decisions over others?

We see it in other aspects with respect to evolutionary psychology so why not in terms of morality?

[quote]therajraj wrote:
We see it in other aspects with respect to evolutionary psychology so why not in terms of morality?[/quote]

Well, I’m not saying that man kind can’t, or isn’t already evolving towards a more moral standing naturally.

I guess the problem being our ability to rationalize immoral behavior once we get older.

Link doesn’t work. We do however know one thing for sure. An infant’s innate sense of right and wrong, as undeveloped and immature as it may be, certainly has nothing to do with the image of God which he bears, broken though it is in sin. That is definitely out of the question.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=babies+have+morals+60+min&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

First page result (CBS news). I’m on my phone, it keeps directing me towards the mobile URL.

Why is it babies are atheist but not amoral?

[quote]therajraj wrote:
Why is it babies are atheist but not amoral?[/quote]

Who said they weren’t? Looks like they’re rather racist.

Edit: Seems a little bizarre to call them atheists, too…It’s like saying they don’t believe in computers simply because they haven’t exactly grasped the concept of ‘computer,’ yet.

[quote]therajraj wrote:
Why is it babies are atheist but not amoral?[/quote]There’s no such thing as an atheistic amoral person. Sperm+egg=image of God. Come on Raj. How many times we gotta go over this.

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Sperm+egg=image of God.[/quote]

These discussions are always good for a laugh. Both the religious nuts and the atheist nuts think that their way is the only way of thinking.

I’ll have to watch the video tonight but just from the title it does sound interesting.

james

[quote]Sloth wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:
Why is it babies are atheist but not amoral?[/quote]

Who said they weren’t? Looks like they’re rather racist.

Edit: Seems a little bizarre to call them atheists, too…It’s like saying they don’t believe in computers simply because they haven’t exactly grasped the concept of ‘computer,’ yet.
[/quote]

Not bizarre at all. It makes the distinction that religion is learned while morality is inherent

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:
Why is it babies are atheist but not amoral?[/quote]

Who said they weren’t? Looks like they’re rather racist.

Edit: Seems a little bizarre to call them atheists, too…It’s like saying they don’t believe in computers simply because they haven’t exactly grasped the concept of ‘computer,’ yet.
[/quote]

Not bizarre at all. It makes the distinction that religion is learned while morality is inherent[/quote]

‘Morality’ isn’t inherent. Unless you’re arguing that racism and selfish behavior is moral.

altruistic behavior and morality are two different things.

if babies have morals then ants are soviet agents.

And btw, babies are not “atheists”. They are simply not religious.
And their first quasi-religious ideas are usually “animist”.

Very cool. Definitely makes sense that people may come into the world with some kind of imprinting-similar to other animals. Pretty interesting if our imprinting includes altruistic behavior, and it’s worth noting that this would fall in line with some other theories about altruism that are out there.

Do Bees need to be TAUGHT to Pollinate Flowers?
No.

Do Spiders need to be TAUGHT how to spin Webs?
No.

Do Humans need to be TAUGHT how to be Human?
Take a wild guess.

[quote]kamui wrote:
altruistic behavior and morality are two different things.

if babies have morals then ants are soviet agents.

And btw, babies are not “atheists”. They are simply not religious.
And their first quasi-religious ideas are usually “animist”.

[/quote]

Nope babies are atheists.

They don’t have a belief in god. Criteria met

[quote]Karado wrote:
Do Bees need to be TAUGHT to Pollinate Flowers?
No.

Do Spiders need to be TAUGHT how to spin Webs?
No.

Do Humans need to be TAUGHT how to be Human?
Take a wild guess.

[/quote]

my not-so-wild guess : “yes”.

Human children are extremely weak, dependent and inept compared to other mammals. And infancy last an extremely long time.
That’s why culture (which implies “being taught things”) is our nature.

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]kamui wrote:
altruistic behavior and morality are two different things.

if babies have morals then ants are soviet agents.

And btw, babies are not “atheists”. They are simply not religious.
And their first quasi-religious ideas are usually “animist”.

[/quote]

Nope babies are atheists.

They don’t have a belief in god. Criteria met[/quote]

Sophism.
Atheism is a philosophical stance (hence the -ism suffix). Babies don’t have philosophical stances.

Babies are unemployed workers.
They don’t have a job. Criteria met.

Another proof that atheists are lazy.

[quote]kamui wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]kamui wrote:
altruistic behavior and morality are two different things.

if babies have morals then ants are soviet agents.

And btw, babies are not “atheists”. They are simply not religious.
And their first quasi-religious ideas are usually “animist”.

[/quote]

Nope babies are atheists.

They don’t have a belief in god. Criteria met[/quote]

Sophism.
Atheism is a philosophical stance (hence the -ism suffix). Babies don’t have philosophical stances.

Babies are unemployed workers.
They don’t have a job. Criteria met.

Another proof that atheists are lazy.
[/quote]

Atheism is also defined by a rejection in the belief of god. But its a useless definition anyway since this god fellow is not clearly defined so nobody knows what exactly they are rejecting.

[quote]kamui wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]kamui wrote:
altruistic behavior and morality are two different things.

if babies have morals then ants are soviet agents.

And btw, babies are not “atheists”. They are simply not religious.
And their first quasi-religious ideas are usually “animist”.

[/quote]

Nope babies are atheists.

They don’t have a belief in god. Criteria met[/quote]

Sophism.
Atheism is a philosophical stance (hence the -ism suffix). Babies don’t have philosophical stances.

Babies are unemployed workers.
They don’t have a job. Criteria met.

Another proof that atheists are lazy.
[/quote]

Nope.

Unemployed workers are people actively seeking work. Stay at homes and children aren’t included in unemployment rates.

Criteria not met.

Babies lack a belief in god. They are atheists.