Is Morality Grounded On Feelings?

Learning why morality is not based on feelings.

[eddiesblacksmithingkjv]

True there is scripture for that. Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, But it's end is the way of death

[matostruck]

I agree and feeling is like water and oil....be careful!!!!

[christopherjohnson]

So, consider that what someone loves/is attracted to is good, and when someone does evil, they seek good things in disordered ways (and the evil is "tolerated", instead of loved in the same way (as I believe CS Lewis says, people don't desire evil for its own sake). Even if what is *desired* isn't always good, it can still be the case that what is *desirable* is always good.

Detaching goodness from subjectivity entirely "opens one up" to possible views where "objective goodness" is radically capricious to human standards of goodness, to the point that it'd difficult to discern what meaning goodness would even have at that point.

A writeup on this kind of view as applied to worldviews/religions, from New Apologetics:
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Questioner:
There have been over 3000 gods so far. Why do you think your god is the real one and all the others are made up nonsense?
New Apologetics:
We don't think all the others are made-up nonsense. We believe what you believe. We also believe what they believe. We also believe St. Paul:
"[Love] believes all things" (1 Cor 13:7)
This is neither a compromise with irrationality, nor is it a denial of absolute truth in service of some contrived faux unity or pseudo-tolerance. With regard to all the worldviews of all the people all of the time, the Second Vatican Council states the following:
"Through her work, whatever good is in the minds and hearts of men, whatever good lies latent in the religious practices and cultures of diverse peoples, is not only saved from destruction but is also cleansed, raised up and perfected unto the glory of God, the confusion of the devil and the happiness of man." (Lumen Gentium)
But what is the good in the minds and hearts of human beings? The good, according to the Church, is that which attracts a person to believe as they do and to act as they do. In other words, the good is, quite simply, that which can possibly be loved.
"The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1765)
Whatever potentially attracts any person towards any given worldview is what is good (i.e. subjectively desirable or lovable) about that worldview. In the same way one truth cannot negate another truth, and a more complete truth cannot possibly annihilate a lesser, partial truth, so it is that the highest good cannot possibly negate any partial good. Necessarily, among all things true and good, each coheres in perfect unity with all.
As Catholics, we believe that the highest truth and the highest good are ultimately united in the ultimate reality. God is "that than which none greater can be conceived" or "whatever it is better to be than not to be". If the true and the good are one, though, we must recognize that whatever any person finds genuinely attractive about any worldview is also what is *true* about that worldview.
If the truth they hold is a partial one, then the attraction to holding it as "true" is also partial. Any lack is not something which attracts, but is merely endured.
In positively willing the good of the other, one who loves necessarily recognizes are rejoices in the good, even if it is an incomplete good. Just as the whole does not annihilate the part, so it is that true love cannot negate anything true or good, but only makes itself available to serve. It does not negate, but only adds.
"To love is to will the good of another.' All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1766)
Love only offers more of what is already lovable, and does not take away what is loved. Whenever we see "hope against hope", "truth against truth", or "good against good", what we are really seeing is evil against evil.
If we Christians do not preserve, undiminished, the good loved by another, but threaten, condemn, or pretend we don't desire it ourselves because we (if we were honest) would realize we envy them for having it, then we do not love. And whatever we do, if it is not done in love, it is not of God.
Now, we could give many arguments and tell many stories about why we believe what we do. There are lots. We can explain how the goods of any worldview, including atheism, are preserved and amplified in what we, as Catholics, believe. We could explain the psychology of why people see as false and evil what we know and believe to be true and good. If you ask us to do any of these things, we will. For now, we'll say the following:
Catholicism says the true and the good are united in God. If there is possibly a better, more glorious, more rational, and more beautiful worldview, then that's the one you should believe. That's the one God would have you believe. However, if the true and the good are not ultimately united, if truth and desirability do diverge from one another at some point, then any person's professed loyalty to seeking the truth for its own sake becomes an impossible lying loyalty. Ardent pursuit of truth requires great sacrifice, but no one can sacrifice for what they do not truly love, and no one can truly love what is not truly lovable.
Therefore, if we don't have "faith" that the highest truth is also the highest good, if we believe in our hearts that it is something other than "that than which none greater can be conceived", then we seek truth ultimately (and therefore only) as a matter of utility. To the degree our loyalty to "truth" ceases to bestow some advantage over other people (i.e. those who know less) and situations (i.e. those which can be manipulated), then truth is no longer our aim because it is no longer worthy or worth it.
If there is such a thing as "too good to be true", then truth is not loved for itself because it cannot be loved for itself. To say otherwise is a contradiction, and no contradiction can be true. We are Catholic because there's no such thing as "too good to be true."

[gorillaz_jbi]

Feelings are not inherently wrong. You cannot be blamed for having feelings. Everyone has feelings all the time they ought not have. And sometimes we fail. It’s not the feelings that are the issue, it’s the actions that flow from them. Matthew chapter 5, Jesus ratchets up the standard. He says that even if you are just angry with your brother, you are guilty. Tough to live up to right? Be perfect as your Heavenly Father. But humans cannot be perfect, right? And that’s why we need Him, because we are not perfect. So we all have these struggles, but for us to say that God is at fault for our struggles, that’s not true.

[somerandom]

Do you have any videos of you answering the questions that people ask you?

[robertoesquivel]

Still trying to figure out what this is a part of, anybody know what the event was called?

[Jojohumf]

Is this in England? The black man speaking has a strong English accent.

[roberthill]

Every human being was created with an inborn sense of right and wrong, with discernment of what is fair and unfair. We cannot violate this God-instilled morality without justification. We see this all the time because even unbelievers can recognize fairness versus unfairness, right from wrong, and justice versus injustice. That is why some people accuse God of being cruel or nonexistent because they correctly recognize unjust, unfair, and bad things happening, and God seems to do nothing about them.
Therefore, people either deny that there is a God, or they create another god and make up their own religious rules. In either case, the result is that the inborn, innate morality is appeased or seared and overridden. The individual creates in their heart and mind justifying reasons that allow them to override the alarm bells in their God-given morality system caused by their selfish choices. That way, they can do what they want, which is selfish and wrong. In doing that, they sear their God-given morality grid and replace it with lies. That is bad enough for the person who initially starts the lies. Still, if they convince enough people to believe the lies, a false religion becomes established in society. That means the children and their future descendants will be taught to believe the lies and propagate them into the future.
The existence of this internal, innate moral instinct demands an explanation. It could not have evolved by random processes. This universal moral grid system in every human being always points to the same moral laws. People do what is “right” by this moral law when they do what is unselfish; this means when they are “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.” People are doing “wrong” by this moral law when they do what is selfish and, consciously or unconsciously, do things that benefit “me, myself, and mine” without realizing and caring about the adverse effects on others.

[zeddicuszorrander]

This is an area where Frank Turek contradicts himself. In other videos he says we know right from wrong because god wrote morality on our hearts (Romans Chapter 1). But when we use that morality to judge god's action to see if god acted good or evil, then, all of a sudden, we don't know right from wrong.

[worminstool]

Morality IS based on feelings. Empathetic feelings. Christ said : do unto others

That requires feelings of compassion. Meat eaters have a hard time understanding this simple concept.

[mikeramos]

Anyone who argues morality comes from feelings is a living contradiction

[sierraclark]

Jesus Christ saves and He wants to have a relationship with you!😄

[craigmcgrath]

Evil is the wrong word. We aren't naturally evil, we are naturally natural. If you feel shameful about it then you have issues, but evil is a different matter. Toddlers aren't evil. Selfishness isn't evil. C'mon, don't believe everything the Bible tells you. Be skeptical.