Do you believe we have become more moral through time?

Not only that, but we now recognize the immorality of child labor, child abuse, statutory rape, animal cruelty, spousal abuse, dueling in the streets, ruthless despotic monarchs making arbitrary changes to religious laws...

Yeah. I'd say so.

As for kids today being disrespectful- this same complaint has been made for centuries? And BTW saying teenage girls in the past didn't get pregnant is ridiculous. Girls got *married* at twelve in Shakespeare's day- and many of those were "shotgun weddings"

You had emptier jails because there were less people- and no concept of fingerprints, rape kits or other evidence by which to convict people.

I'm not sure that we can say we've become more moral since morals seem to simply be the current consensus which changes, like you said. People 1000 years ago would call us immoral.

I would say we have definitely moved closer to universal equal rights for humans though (and getting better with other animals). This has probably come with technology and globalisation. It's hard to oppress people for long when you have constant contact with such a diverse group of cultures and backgrounds.

Only the religious think we need religion for morality, which as you know is completely untrue. Religion is always playing catchup with morality compared to society at a whole. They're still mostly behind on the topics of women and homosexuality, for no other reason than "god says so." And in addition they make up morals such as almost anything regarding sex being immoral.

One may notice or may not, but change is a continuous process. Even terrorists where good some time before and they will again become good after some times.

Scientific developments, better communication systems, new inventions, education etc are responsible factors. All these factors change intelligence level of human beings from time to time.

So when situation is not constant, positively I can say, we march forward.and this can be progress and regress both.

What is new today or old today, was not necessarily good or bad. You can only say it is good or bad in present time.

So it is irrelevant to compare old time with new time.

Sort of relative to the times I would think. For example some believe woman had more absolute power when they manipulated men from behind the scenes.

To each their own I say. Power is also relative. Sometimes I think most people want something before they really know all the implications. By the time they get what they want it's already too late.

Be careful what you wish for, because many times you get it.

No. We may have gained more freedom, but overall, society has become more evil. Even our freedom is being perverted, to open the door for legal abortion, widespread pornography, homosexual marriages, heading towards legalizing marijuana, and removing God from our country ( the US ). Daniel 12:4 has part of the answer. While many things have become better, many things have also become worse; like more religion, but less living for God. I never knew how widespread atheism was until this last year. The absence of God means the increase of evil and the wicked imagination of man. This is what brought about the first destruction of mankind ( Genesis 6:5-7 ), and it will also be the reason for the second destruction ( Revelation 9:20-21 ).

No, we have not.

Now we have ended the lives of 46 million children in the name of abortion.

Now unwed teenage pregnancy is at an all time high.

Now more children are growing up in single parent households struggling to pay the bills.

Our prisons are overcrowded.

We have a very high divorce rate.

We now have weapons that can destroy millions of people at one time.

We now have children and young adults shooting up schools.

History teaches us that man has always tried to get control over his fellow man. I could argue that our elected officials in Washington are trying to enslave you even today. We as a country have taken God out of the public arena and we are in moral decay. Our founders warned us of this.

George Washington Farewell Address

Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=15

"We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human

passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made

only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the

government of any other."

John Adams

(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

Source Oct. 11, 1798; Address to the military

http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote/john_adams_quo...

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782. ME 2:227

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations...

You see our founders took a look at all the governments of history. They were some very wise men. And gave us freedom based on man's God given rights. Now our government doesn't look to God to help our country. When you tear down the foundation of something it will crumble. You need to look no further than our federal government and see how bad of shape our country is in. Our polititians are very corrupt and they are a reflection of the people. So no we are not getting any better morally.

That's a very interesting perspective, and it makes a lot of sense to me.

I think as people we do develop moral standards socially. I think that the fact that these things used to be widely accepted and no longer are shows that ethics and morals are not absolute, and we can always improve.

In my opinion, I mean, and I'm probably totally wrong!

WOW...i replaced into no longer conscious there have been even on the edge of this way of diverse Religions, and as I appeared at another hyperlinks published interior the solutions, I see it truly is in basic terms a pair of million/2 of them. i won't be able to offer an answer right here that the author is calling for decrease than that i do no longer join any of those prepared religions era. a number of those religions combating to worship or seek for the life of a non existent or a fairy-tale God, is in order that... alarming. Is it any ask your self our international is in any such state of... crumbling all around us? With certainly one of those delusional fanaticism working amok international huge, this is a miracle of popular proportions, that life itself has no longer been overwhelmed decrease than its' very weight! i assume I even have been residing in a bubble I self created to flee the lunacy that exists on our pearl interior the universe. i won't be able to even properly say **GOD help us all**, because of fact it in basic terms would not look to signify something actual!

this is an example of maturity over time. just like as we as young adults become more moral as real life kicks in and leave college. as our country became older, we've become wiser and more mature about our domestic issues. granted, there are still problems in our country today; drugs, immigration, etc but we have become better over time.

Jas P: Yes, there were all of those things and more in ancient times!

Yes. Humans have evolved and become smarter. We've realized that we wouldn't want certain bad things to happen to us, so we stopped doing it to others.

The world has become more open-minded. Not more morally corrupt.