Quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
quote:
Originally posted by Chewbacca:
So are we born with a conscience, or are we taught that some behaviors cause guilt and others joy? Nature or nuture, the age old debate.
Well, my belief is that we are born with a conscience, instinct will drive us to seek joy and bliss, but conditioning will lead us to guilt and shame. Just my belief.
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You might be interested in some of the psychological studies done a few deacades ago (would be illegal to do them now). They isolated children and raised them with no moral or behavioral guidence, from what I recall, there was no evidence of instinct nor moral compas inate to human children. The info is really hazy because I read about it years and years ago, but I seem to recall that some of the cildren turned very savage, and others ended up being near immobile and timid. All I remember clearly is how horrible I thought it was that they used human children in this research. [/QUOTE]Ummm, I wouldn't typify growing up isolated from behavioral conditioning as nature, and I wouldn't call teaching patterns of behavior that lead to guilt or shame nurture either.
Babies and children are an excellent example of what it means to be innocent, and it is natural to nurture them. It is the conditioned abusive and shameful behaviors of the parent that are passed to the child that disrupt a persons natural innocences.
Thats what I was driving towards in my post, in other words it is both nature as well as nurture.
Religion or the lack of, has little bearing to the teaching, expressing and understanding of compassion, a quality anyone can have.
Just my lil perspective...