Good argument. I think I was getting caught up defending each little point of my post and focusing on semantics. I think you are missing what I mean though. I never meant to say that society is an overlord over our wills and we have no real choices. (Society IS a human invention, after all) For example, just because the attitude of society is favorable to a certain law doesn't necesarily correlate to the individual. I can't debate that. I also didn't mean to paint society as an all-encompassing force that affects us all equally. Of course you can belong to church, school, or sport subcultures, and the final effects will vary depending on the person. So logically it is by and large an individual thing.

But the societies you belong to determine your individuality! I.E. Those of you who are religious no doubt are in your denomination becuase that was how you were raised. Try finding the individual choice in that.

We all have free will. We all can choose to go against our society's norms. But where did your morality come from? Society. Again: by this I do NOT mean that society's rules equal our rules. But society's rules DETERMINE our rules, whether one way or the other. Ya dig? Society is a human creation, so naturally it doesn't control us in the way you thought I suggested. But it does influence, and I can think of no other source of morality (besides your building-block examples, such as no indiscriminate murder.)

I hope this looser interpretation helps clarify what I meant. My opinion may seem overly simplistic now, but the original post asked about morality's true source. God was even mentioned. SO I think I was making my views out to be more complex than they really are.

Peace.

• I can dig it - tenacious - January 22, 2001 - 23:52 UTC