What is morality? Morality is a set of written and unwritten rules that a person must follow. This is an obvious answer, but it doesn't explain much. For example, he does not explain why these rules are needed and who wrote them.
If we go back centuries or study other cultures, we will find that their ideas of morality can be very different from ours. Many things that are perfectly normal for another culture are, from our point of view, absolutely immoral.
For example, for the Northern nomadic peoples, until recently it was quite normal to leave a feeble man, his relative, one to die in the woods.
It would be possible to continue to give examples, but it is clear that different peoples, at different times, ideas about morality do not coincide at all. Morality everywhere different, but why?
What is morality?
Morality is dictated by the conditions of life in which certain groups of people live. Morals are simply norms of behavior. It is clear that the people who live in the modern metropolis and the people who live somewhere in the tundra, absolutely different living conditions, survival. This means that they have completely different requirements for behavior and, as a consequence, different requirements for norms and rules.
People who, in order to survive, made bloody raids on neighboring tribes, could not afford the same ideas about morality that we share with you.
There is a misconception that there are some "eternal values" that are common to all times and peoples. In fact, only Christian values are meant by these eternal values. It happened historically, because on earth won the Western civilization, which was able to impose its morality to the rest of the world. Indeed do even Christian civilization. For this reason, in this article we will consider religion and morality together.
If we reveal the content of the term “morality", we will see that morality regulates 3 types of relations between people:
1. Sexual relations
2. Rules of violence
3. Property relationship
Of course, morality regulates many other things: what you can eat, how to treat the authorities, the Church, and so on... But they are all derived from these three types of relations.
Let's take a brief look at each of them.
Regulation of sexual relations
By this I mean those sexual relationships that are the norm in a particular society. Monogamy, polygamy, promiscuity and so on.
The regulation of sexual relations can be very tight when restricted to monogamy without divorce, and can afford everything. We are interested in why some societies tighten the rules between the sexes, while others, on the contrary, soften them.
Everything depends on the socio-economic situation in which the society is located. If the logic of the development of society requires to increase the number and quality of citizens, it is reasonable to introduce rigid monogamy. Why? Because this type of relationship provides the best reproduction of the population.
Benefits of monogamy:
1. Monogamy prevents the spread of disease
2. Monogamy allows you to keep better track of offspring
3. Monogamy allows to unite people in minimal socio-economic cells (families), which increases the manageability of society.
If you pay attention to Christian religious ethics, then note that religion is also against abortion, contraception, divorce and so on. In short, against everything that can interfere with the reproduction of the population.
Rules of violence
The main purpose of morality and religion is to exercise the state's monopoly on the use of violence. The state cannot allow its citizens to kill each other. Citizens are as much the property of the state as anything else. For this reason, rules for the use of violence were invented. These are the rules we call morality.
That's why murder and suicide are sins. Because it is impossible to allow property to deteriorate.
The same acts, but which are carried out in the interests of the state, are presented in a purely positive way. We call them truth differently: valor and self-sacrifice.
Property relationship
In order to ensure the state's economic growth, it is necessary to ensure the accumulation of resources. Without guarantees of safety of property, accumulation is very difficult. It is extremely difficult to ensure this safety by the mere apparatus of violence, so morality is necessary.
In addition, the lack of regulation of property relations, generates tension in society, requires to divert resources to individual protection, which is very unprofitable. It is much easier to delegate this care to the state and the Church, which will force everyone to follow the rules.
Why is modern morality what it is?
To begin with, I note that even if you are an atheist, Communist, Muslim or Buddhist, you are still the bearer of modern morality, which is based on Christian ethics. After all, the generally accepted morality in Russia is Christian (although in some places it is not so). There is no escape from this, because Christianity has been forming social thought in our country for about 1000 years.
You may not know anything about Christianity, but the Christian way of thinking has penetrated so deeply into our society that we take the norms of Christianity for granted. We perceive these norms from other people without understanding where the source is. Christian morality permeated everything: books, movies, conversations…
Why is Christian morality so widespread? Christian morality provided the best support for the socio-economic model that existed in the heyday of Christianity, namely the feudal period. It seems, that for transition society in this formation, religion and was created.
And what did feudalism demand? Population growth, ensuring loyalty to the sovereign and the government, satisfaction with their social status, law-abiding. The ideas that are contained in Christianity perfectly provided all this, which allowed these ideas to spread.
How did modern morality arise?
It all began a long time ago, at the end of the Roman Empire. When the Roman state grew to an incredible size at the time, there were quite serious difficulties with its management. The Empire lacked the resources to support everything with a single military force.
Governing a state requires that the citizens of that state think roughly the same way. And not just the same, but also with certain specifics, which should correspond to the socio-economic situation. The original Roman religion could not cope with this, because it lost its authority, it simply ceased to believe. Besides, it's outdated.
Then many advanced people who understood the danger of the situation began to look for a way out, including on the instructions of the state.
At some point, they discovered that there is a religion whose ideas are suitable for the socio-economic situation. Many famous people 3-4 centuries began to turn to Christianity: officials, major statesmen, prominent speakers and many others. Everyone who understood what society needed at the moment.
What did the social and economic situation in the Roman Empire require?
It was necessary to colonize new territories, it was necessary to ensure the manageability of these territories, which means the loyalty of citizens, the security of borders. But the fact is that we need the citizens of Rome were multiplied, not really, but well it did the conquered tribes.
The stratum of people, which was the framework for the Roman Empire became thinner and smaller. It could not ensure not only the colonization of new territories, but also the retention of old ones. Why was this happening? Because the institution of the family began to decay, and the manners of the jaded patricians became worse and worse. They were weak.
Natural problems of political and economic character were superimposed on it.
What was needed was an idea that could energize society, mobilize it. For these purposes, Christianity was ideally suited, which by this time had an excellent prescribed doctrine that regulated almost all aspects of human life.
Why invent something new when you can use an existing one? Of course, for this had to Christianity as a reform. First of all, it was necessary to create an organizational structure that would ensure the dissemination of ideas. We know this structure as the Church.
In addition, various versions of this doctrine(the non-canonical Gospels) were found and destroyed, which could create problems in the future.
In short, everything was done wisely. It happened to 3-4 century ad. Why not sooner? Because it was at this time that the state became interested in this religion as an instrument of domestic policy. Otherwise, Christianity would remain a sect.
Another 50-100 years and the Empire would not be recognized. Unfortunately for the Empire, they were too late. The Empire collapsed, but the structure that was created to reform it has not gone away. The Church stayed and continued to do what it was created to do. And continues to do so now.
With the collapse of Empire, problems, which before it stood, nowhere not gone away. However, there was already a tool that allowed to form public consciousness. Those societies in which the new religion took root, received a number of competitive advantages over others. After all, the ideas contained in Christianity provided population growth, loyalty and many other good things. This is what ensured such an active spread of Christianity.
Where is here the morality? Religion is only an instrument by which morality is placed in the public consciousness. Morality is the essence of any religion, its core. That's what makes her strong.
Christianity is a social machine whose task is to ensure the growth of the population and ensure the loyalty of the authorities.