[Xantar]

I'm looking to hand out some doubloons, but I only give them to people who make good posts. And since that hasn't been happening fast enough for me, I decided to start a topic to see if I could encourage people a little.

Anyway, I'm taking a psychology class. The first lecture was titled "The science of psychology."

"We don't debate the morality of planets circling the sun," said my professor. "We don't declare Jupiter's orbit to be immoral. Why not? It's because of physics. Physics tells us that planets circle around the sun and they can't help it. It's just the way the universe works.

"Psychology aspires to be like physics. It obviously hasn't gotten there. It's several hundred years younger than physics, for one thing. But in the end, psychology may end up taking the morality out of humans. Humans are selfish beings that will do harmful things to other humans, and they can't help it. It's just the way the universe works."

And you know what? From what I've learned, psychology is starting to make strides in that direction. Sure, there's still lots of debate and grey area. But psychology has already gotten to the point where it can experiment and quantify just like any other science.

Are we ever going to find that we act the way we do not out of choice but because it's just the way we are? And if so, what happens to morality?

I have my own opinions, but let's hear yours first.