Is Deference the Basis of Morality?
Is deference to authority the basis for morality? According to Christian doctrine, the “original sin”was disobedience, which is what led to the first humans being separated from God and ejected from paradise. The Bible tells us that at first God planted a tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden of Eden and then forbade the humans from eating its fruits. Here we have the very first test of obedience, the kind where children are given access to an attractive goody but are expressly forbidden from partaking, in order to see whether they have the self-discipline to obey authority. Apparently, Adam and Eve failed the first test, hence the idea of “original sin”. Note that later in the Bible, one of the “ten commandments” is “Honour your father and mother”. Put this way, deference to a parent’s authority appears to be a human universal. Indeed, as the Psychologist Jean Piaget showed, all young children recogni...