| Kasz216 said: No it's not. 1st level would be "Do not murder because it's a rule." God would be irelevent in first level thinking. This is one of those things where you generally need to crack open a textbook rather then go off of a one sentence wikipedia article. 1st level thinking doesn't even have the person involved as a member of society yet. Hence why it's children only. The bible has rules... (and explains why those rules exist...) sure. So does every code of laws. Kohlberg's system isn't about laws... but how people react to laws and why.
As for Christian Morality itself... I'd note that Punishments themselves are completely avoidable through Jesus Christ... so I don't even see where you get that it's 1st level from your flawed attempt to apply somethign to something it's not supposed to be applied too. To have a way to avoid punishment due to outside factors is pure stage 5 reasoning. |
Erm... "laws" are stage 4. And the system isn't about how people react to laws, it's how they formulate moral decisions. And if your moral decision is based on "god said so" (which is exactly the same as "it's a rule", just with a religious overtone), then you're still on stage 1 morality. Note that the levels of thinking aren't actually tied to ages or where a person is in society. One can be a fully grown adult who still uses stage 1 moral thought.
By the way, the bible does *not* explain why the rules exist. Just for the fun of it, I'll challenge you on it. Find somewhere in the bible where it explains why "thou shalt not murder" (note: if it says "kill", then it's poorly translated). Find somewhere in the bible where it explains why touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean.
But more importantly, if you're getting your morals from a book, you're still on stage 1, no matter what - if you're not actually engaging your reasoning skills, your critical thinking, then you're not even close to stage 5. Note that I'm using the rhetorical "you", not referring to you, Kasz.
And avoidance of punishment "through Jesus Christ" is actually a massive distortion of the concept put down in the bible. The idea is that accepting Jesus Christ will lead you to make moral choices, not that it will allow you to avoid punishment when making immoral choices. And most of THAT part of the bible is Stage 3, including the "golden rule" (which is even explicitly noted against Stage 3 in the wikipedia article about the stages).
"Thou shalt not murder" is stage 1. The "golden rule" is stage 3. Stage 5 is best characterised by a more "global golden rule", if you can think of it that way. Stage 6 is where, in my opinion, my "modified golden rule" comes into play. My "modified golden rule" says "do unto others as they would have you do unto them". Indeed, stage 6 specifically carries the idea that disobeyance of unjust laws is an obligation (whereas stage 4 would demand obeyance of unjust laws, and stage 5 would introduce the idea that sometimes it's OK to disobey unjust laws).
Having a way to avoid punishment isn't stage 5 thinking. It's actually not even stage 1 thinking. It's not a matter of moral development at all.
