Morality: Religion and Moral Beliefs

Morality is defined as the ability to know right from wrong, and good from bad in our society today and also the societies of the past. Morality is influenced by your family, your religion, and your society. We will be looking at Asia, Africa and the Americas and how their morality was affected by family, religion, and the society. In ancient China morality was influence by family, religion, and society, but I believe it was influenced the most by religion and society. China From the early days of the Neolithic villages used the fertile soil from the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers to product silk which brought great wealth to the Chinese culture. They also in around 1750 B.C.E developed the technique of calligraphy, which has some 4500 characters which some are still in use today. It seems that during the Shang Dynasty there was some sort of class system and this could be seen by how the kings of that time were buried with the people who served him and also with treasures this Showing that the kings were superior to the common folk. Also during this time the Chinese put into practice the world’s first system whereby individuals were selected for government service on the basis of merit and education. A written examinations tested the competence and skills of those who sought government office.(fiero p.70) This system is still around today and is being used. These are some of the ways that the Chinese family played a role in the building of the moral frame work of that society. Religion and the society also played a major role in building the moral character of the Chinese. Early on in the society you could see that the gods played a role guiding the human destiny. An even bigger influence than the gods in molding their fate was their decreased ancestor. According to the Chinese, the spirits of their ancestors continued to exit in the Heaven, where they assumed their role as mediators between Heaven and earth.(fiero p70) The ancient Chinese had a