Are We Born Moral Beings?

I've had this post in my head for a while, but time and life and circumstances don't always permit one to sit down and type one's thoughts. School is now out, however, and that helps the whole time issue immeasurably, so here we go.

(Merritt- 3 months old)
I was cleaning Marie's house a few weeks ago and listening to NPR...I love NPR. Marie totally got me hooked on it so it's all her fault that I am now a public radio geek. The Friday News Round-up with Diane Rehm is really excellent and I love Radio West with Doug Fabrizio (a local show broadcast on-site at KUER in SLC!). So, on this particular day, Doug F. was interviewing a Yale psychologist named Dr. Paul Bloom who has been conducting experiements to determine whether or not we are born with an innate sense of morality. To that end he and his wife (also a psychologist) did a series of tests and experiments using babies as young as 6 months old and discovered that, "babies possess certain moral foundations — the capacity and willingness to judge the actions of others, some sense of justice, [and] gut responses to altruism and nastiness." This is direct contradiction to the long held notions of scientists and humanists that we come into this world as blank slates, and that our notions of morality are written in our hearts by our parents. While it is true that the home in which we are raised shapes, in large measure, our world view and notions of right and wrong, it is our Divine Parent who has given us a light to guide our lives right from the very start. It is the light of Christ, "the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (D&C 93:2).

(Grace - 1 month old)
Dr. Bloom examines some very interesting points in his article, one of which involves the idea of God's hand in our moral development. He quotes Alfred Russel Wallace, who worked with Charles Darwin in developing the theory of natural selection. Wallace felt "that certain human capacities — including 'the higher moral faculties' — are richer than what you could expect from a product of biological evolution. He concluded that some sort of godly force must intervene to create these capacities." Bloom also quoted Dinesh D'Souza, a social and cultural critic, who holds the same view expressed by Alfred Russell Wallace. "[D'Souza] conceded that evolution can explain our niceness in instances like kindness to kin, where the niceness has a clear genetic payoff, but he drew the line at 'high altruism,' acts of entirely disinterested kindness. For D’Souza, 'there is no Darwinian rationale' for why you would give up your seat for an old lady on a bus, an act of nice-guyness that does nothing for your genes. And what about those who donate blood to strangers or sacrifice their lives for a worthy cause? D’Souza reasoned that these stirrings of conscience are best explained not by evolution or psychology but by 'the voice of God within our souls'."

(Grant - 8 months old)
Though Dr. Bloom in the end states that "there is no need to posit divine intervention" and that what we should truly celebrate instead is cultural morality, or our ability to make the world a better place through our own learning and hard-won insight, I took away from this article something else: I saw the hand of God in our development as beings capable of deep goodness. Without the light of Christ we truly would be born the amoral animals Sigmund Freud believed us all to be at birth. Without the light of Christ we would not have that basic knowledge of right and wrong, nor be led to godly things. It is the influence of our Heavenly Father, our own divine natures, and the acceptance of the Holy Ghost that lead us to be better than evolutionary biology would ever expect us to be. Don't be too quick to pat humanity on the back for the development of a higher morality Dr. Bloom, for we surely don't deserve the credit. "Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever" (Alma 26:8).

To read Dr. Paul Bloom's article in full, click here.