Morals- where do they come from?

Ultimately, parents and family is where morality comes from. What has happened in today's society is that parents and family fail miserably to look at themselves as being responsible for any of the bad things that they have done and to accept that responsibility. So over the course of two, or three generations of this type of behavior, of course the children will learn from their parents, who learned from their parents, who learned from their parents. So, years of wrong doing becomes the "okay" thing to do. It's absolutely amazing that I saw your question because I have had this discussion with a close friend of mine. Society plays a big part in morality as well, but none as big as a parents part. Society has changed so much that it doesn't allow the parents to be at home to monitor or teach their children the rights and wrongs of life. In the old days, women stayed home to keep the children in line. Now because of women's rights, women are now in the workforce. So everything affects a persons moral, but nothing more than a parent or family.

Base on the bible (Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth)

the first murder is done by Cain and Abel.

Cain Murder Abel base on jealousy.

See genesis 4: 1-24

Society teaches us ethics. We develop morals personally. These morals are largely determined by our cultural experiences, and are thus entirely relative. Like Joash said, different actions are ethical to different societies (although considering economic differences, wage rates may not be a perfect example).

Essentially, it's an odd cycle:

1) We grow up in a certain hierarchy of cultural forces: family>friends>acquaintances>celebrities>leaders>society as a whole

2) These cultural factors provide a base of information which we then personally choose to accept, reject, or modify to create our own morals.

3) These personal morals are viewed by a societal view (ethics) and determined to be acceptable or unacceptable according to the larger societal group (family/town/state/country etc.)

So what we learn from our forefathers is ethics. What we create for ourselves are morals.

Society teaches us right from wrong. Paying a 10 year old $5 to work 10 hours in a day in some 3rd world country is like paying someone $50 an hour here in the U.S. Making a kid work 10 hours for $5 here though, totally goes against child labor laws (and rightfully so). Some tings like killing are universal, but a lot of things are just based on societal conditions.

No one wants the possibility of being killed to exist in the world, that is why murder will always be a "bad thing". If someone had no knowledge of what murder was, and then witnessed it or was told that it was a possibility someone would injure them, I am sure they would come to the conclusion that the act was wrong and would want to protect themselves.

Culture is learned.

Source: Anthropology and Philosophy

I had morals before I became a Christian- no killing, no sex before marriage, lying is wrong, etc. Some morals though, like not engaging in gossip or slanderous talk and trying to put others before myself come from God's word. I think regardless of religion, beliefs, background or whatever, there is a set of morals recognized by everyone.