Morality Improves Society

First off, I will address the statement, "My opponent does not seem to understand that morality does not evolve". Any scholar of social studies, history, political science, phycology, etc. knows that morality DOES in fact evolve. In the book "The Evolution of Morality" by Richard Joyce , the author goes into great detail on how we as humans create and learn morality from the moment we are born. It is presented to us that mothers often are the first ones to teach their children what is right and wrong. If this is the case, than different mothers would teach different ideals depending on the moral conduct of their society or beliefs. As I laid out in my first retort, slavery is a good example of how something that was once considered moral. A majority of the society in the southern states of the union (and some in the north) during the pre-antebellum era were by all standards of the time moral Christians. However they took this immoral stance because it was a social norm of the time. It took a civil war and drastic legal intervention from the federal government to change what was considered moral to something immoral. The fact that there were Catholics or other groups that opposed slavery is a mute point as these people were not the majority and simply had a differing view of what morality is. This actually solidifies my point that morality is not concrete and can and does change depending on ones social group, ethnicity, religion, economic status or geographic location. My challenger then went on to bring up irrational points regarding murder and rape asking if these were okay. While of course these actions are not ok by todays standards, I would challenge that in the past there have been several societies that did in fact believe that rape, murder, and pillaging were perfectly appropriate behaviors under certain circumstances. I will again bring up Christianity because this is where I have the most knowledge in regards to my own moral code. In the bible there are numerous times where the above actions were not only moral but sanctioned by god as a practice that was required by the Israelites as they moved to conquer territories. If one does not like the biblical reference I can expand further using the Romans, or Moguls, or even the British to provide more examples. My challenger then points out that I was premature in assuming he was talking about Christian beliefs. This is a bit of an unfair statement because I never once stated anything about his/her personal beliefs. I reference Christian beliefs because we live in a society that has historically gleaned its moral code from the bible and teachings of Christ. Ultimately my point is that morality does change and shift. If grows and progresses as society grows and progresses. Morality is not organic to humankind as it is a theory or practice that is learned. Therefore using morals to improve society or government is a dangerous tactic in a free society. Our government uses laws and these laws are dictated by the overall morality of the greater population. This ensures that the majority controls what is just or unjust. If a certain group"s morals rule the masses it leaves minorities in the society to be governed unfairly. A perfect example of this is the topic of equality for homosexuals. Currently there are many in this country that believe that being gay is immoral. Therefore laws have been established that curtail the equal rights for gays. Whether one supports the gay lifestyle or not is irrelevant as the point of our constitution and bill of rights is to provide 100% equality for all. In the near future we will see that states will be required to be nondiscriminatory towards gays. This will present a change to our nation"s morality on the whole and we will see morality change once again. Reference: Joyce, R. (2006). The evolution of morality. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.