Posted on 05/15/2012 4:08:34 PM PDT by GeronL
I am going to take a stab at describing how morality might have evolved. I am trying to aim this at atheistis and others so I tried to refrain from using any religious frame of reference. What separates us from the animals?
So try not to be offended.
So either way, the 'Empire' didn't last 1300 years.
And to answer your original question. I would say that the Roman Republic fell when it's people and leaders were no longer moral.
Many things that the Roman Republic started are still with us, though, and considered moral behavior.
/johnny
Thought: Morality based on what the human leader says may be good, but too often justifies his base interests (Islam’s changing views on adoption as family once Mohammed lusts for his adopted son’s wife). Morality based on a supreme power has greater backing, and you can’t disobey it when no one is watching because God always is.
Much of Christian(/Jewish)-type morality coincides with “natural law” for a very good reason I think. They knew for a long time the things that were detrimental and things that were positive. Codifying it into a single “law” probably took centuries/millenia of hard work by the Old Testament guys.
and it looks like all it takes to break down 6,000 years of progress is a few decades.
Curiously, you have stumbled on a topic near to what I was considering next.
It still needs a lot of work though.
I think Man has a dual nature: the same creature that is capable of great cruelty is also capable of great mercy. Hitler was the author of unimaginable horrors. Yet he passed laws making it a crime to abuse a dog.
You’re right insofar as you define civilization as the triumph of our better natures over our lesser. The irony is that we must periodically revert to the latter to defend the fruits of the former. So we can never truly be free of our inner brute. That is the burden we carry as mere humans, who can only dream of being gods.
Unless you’re Barack Obama ...
Someone said that you can’t take the “cult” out of culture. We organize our actions based upon our hopes and beliefs and as creatures with language we group based upon those hopes that are shared and our families.
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