(First off, I know the theological explanation, so I would like to focus on the natural philosophic angle)
What makes certain actions good or bad? Where does this goodness or badness derive from? Is it intrinisic to the action itself? Or is it a result of the effect of that action?
Any opinions?
both
morality derives from the nature of creation, created things, creatures, especially of course of people. Created things must–and all science supports this–work according to their nature. the law of gravity applies on earth, so if you jump from a tall building, you will go splat.
It is the nature of individual organisms and species to work toward filling intrinsic needs, the most basic of which is survival (as evolutionists love to point out), so anything that militates agains survival of the organism or species is inherently evil, although there are situations where individuals will sacrifice themselves under some conditions to insure survival of the species.
the 10 commandments describe the proper workings of natural law among individuals and communities, and it is no accident that they had to be engraved in stone at the time in history when organized functional families and wider communities based on them had become the basis for civilization and hence, survival, and had, through this same course of social organization, been disobeyed on such a mammoth scale.
Immorality derives both from the nature of the action and the actor, and its results, perceived, short term and long term. It takes a more highly evolved individual and society to conceive real evil, evil that can have global effects.
The propensity to choose evil over good is the product of original sin, the lack of complete sense and vision that we inherit from our first parents.
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