What do you consider "Moral Values"/ (Read 1st post 1st)

[Silver Adept]

Let me say, before I say anything, if the mods feel that this topic is flamebaiting or trolling, they're free to "teh click" it into nonexistence. It's not my intent to do so, but I understand if it could be interpreted that way.

I'm asking this question because several of the newsmedia pundits are telling us that "moral values" are the reason for voting for or against the current administration in the last election. I wonder what people consider to be "moral values."

That said, to help try and prevent potential bickering, I'm going to lay down a few ground rules for this thread -

#1) Before reading any replies to this thread, compose your answer to the question in the subject - What do YOU consider to be moral values?
Post your reply, then go back and read the others.

#2) No commenting on other people's postings - make a separate thread for that if you want to discuss what people have said. Or use IM or PM. I'd like to keep the thread relatively uncluttered, and hopefully, if everyone respects this rule, the mods won't have to wade in with the Staff of Zot.

And no, I'm not opening this thread with my own statements. I'll drop them in later, after a few replies have appeared. I don't know what I expect to see, but I'm curious to see it.

[Shurikane]

I consider moral values to be the convictions one has towards particular situations of life. Abortion, homosexuality, genetics - those are all problems that call upon our sense of morality, what we distinguish as right, and what we distinguish as wrong.

Whereas a moral opinion is simply a leaning towards one side, a moral value is of much higher importance to the person. Having a moral value means that you couldn't fathom what would happen if such value wasn't encouraged.

I have only one moral value: liberty. It englobes acceptance and understanding. We managed to give it a good shot with racism problems. Then with sexism. Now it's sexualism. Hopefully, homosexuals and bisexuals will become widely accepted and will no longer be the target of insults. If a practice doesn't hurt or kill anybody, there is no reason to call it immoral and should therefore be allowed.

[whiteypoker]

"Moral values" can easily be translated to the "standard of rightness or wrongness." This is not as widesweeping as to apply it to everybody, at least in today's society. For instance, though I may think being baptised is the moral thing to do, I don't hold you to the same standard if you're a muslim. Though this would appear to have a dualistic nature, the fact that what I think is right I do but I don't hold you to my standard, it is the odd way in which we, at least in America opperate. Their is a built in toleration factor in society. To say, then, that America voted on its moral values is to say that they agreed with the personal values of said candidate. If enough people hold the same values, it becomes civil or social moral values. This is the direction we are headed in.

Social moral values are a different beast. They take on the qualities of intolerance. It becomes a select club of us versus them such as what happened to the Jews in WW2.

My personal belief about personal moral values is that their fine to believe, but if you act on them, you are placing yourself as judge and jury of what is right and wrong. Who made you the High Mighty of Morality. Nobody. Thats who... so sit back down and drink your cup of coffee.

[Therin]

IMHO:

Your moral values are nothing more or less than your beliefs, what guides your footsteps down the road of life. The choices that you make when presented with a problem are governed by how you feel and what you believe about a given situation, as well as the strength of those beliefs. For some, these values serve as a rock-hard divider between one way and another, while to others, they are simply guidelines. Near the bottom, morals simply become an interesting topic of thought, with no actual application towards the real world.
In between all this, I think, is most of humanity: as you progress down the scale from strong to weak morals, these values become less of a guidepost, and more of...an idol, so to speak; an ideal against which a person will compare their own actions. A great many find themselves wanting. Sadly, it is one thing to profess belief in a given value or set of ideals, but quite another to uphold those beliefs.
For example, a man such as myself, who believes in standing up and fighting tooth and nail for what you believe in, no matter the cost to yourself, may still in the end capitulate, retreat, roll over and play dead when called upon to actually back those words up. It is a truly sobering thing, to realize that you are not what you thought you were, and something that can haunt you to your grave. Because if you cannot defend your beliefs when they are threatened, what kind of a person are you? You profess to stand for something, and yet when called upon to stand, you step back and refuse. The way I see it, you are nothing without your beliefs. Just an empty, soulless robot, trudging through life with your head hung like a galley slave.
To put it simply, you are what you believe in. Your moral values make you who you are, and to change them is to change yourself. To fail them is to fail yourself.