Moral teaching before Christianity

[passionate0829]

Hello my fellow atheists:
Could someone give me an example of some literature before the Bible that involves moral lessons which we still use today? I'm in a debate about where moral values come from and my opponent claimed that before the Bible, humanity doesn't have any significant literature that provides moral lessons. I know some of the moral teaching in the Bible isn't original such as the Golden Rule. Could someone point out a few more moral lessons from the Bible wasn't totally original when it first appeared? I think Sam Harris and Prof. Dawkins point out a few, but I can't remember exactly what they are since I have read their books a few years ago. I think the ancient Greek and Babylon might have had some moral teaching, but I don't remember exactly what they are. Many thanks for any input.

[The Magic Pudding]

Some stuff about the Greeks
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszo ... nt_greece/

A Confucius Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius

What a shock, they even had morals in ancient Egypt
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/ethics.htm

I have left my city, I have come down from my province,
having done what is right (ma'at) for its lord, having satisfied him with that which he loves,
I spoke ma'at and I did ma'at, I spoke well and I reported well....
I rescued the weak from the hand of one stronger than he when I was able;
I gave bread to the hungry, clothing [to the naked], a landing for the boatless.
I buried him who had no son,
I made a boat for him who had no boat,
I respected my father, I pleased my mother,
I nurtured their children.

[Tom62]

And then there are also the ethical teachings of Buddha.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

Unskillful Bodily Action

And how is one made impure in three ways by bodily action? There is the case where a certain person takes life, is a hunter, bloody-handed, devoted to killing & slaying, showing no mercy to living beings. He takes what is not given. He takes, in the manner of a thief, things in a village or a wilderness that belong to others and have not been given by them. He engages in sensual misconduct. He gets sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man. This is how one is made impure in three ways by bodily action.

[penfold]

Gilgamesh

[elliebean]

More of a legal code than a moral one, but... related?
Hammurabi

Here are seventeen example laws, in their entirety, of the Code of Hammurabi, translated into English:

    * If anyone ensnares another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.
    * If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.
    * If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital offense is charged, be put to death.
    * If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death.(Another variant of this is, If the owner's son dies, then the builder's son shall be put to death.)
    * If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
    * If a man give his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off.
    * If anyone steals the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.
    * If a man takes a woman to wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.
    * If a man strikes a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, the assailant's daughter shall be put to death.
    * If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.
    * If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth will be knocked out.
    * If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
    * If a freeborn man strikes the body of another freeborn man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina [an amount of money].
    * If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off.
    * If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death.
    * If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his judgment in writing; and later it is discovered that his decision was in error, and it was his own fault, he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case and be removed from the judge's bench.
    * If during an unsuccessful operation a patient dies, the arm of the surgeon must be cut off.
    * If a human talks back to another human their lips shall be hewn off

There are 282 such laws in the Code of Hammurabi, each usually no more than a sentence or two. The 282 laws are bracketed by a Prologue in which Hammurabi introduces himself, and an Epilogue in which he affirms his authority and sets forth his hopes and prayers for his code of laws.

[passionate0829]

Thanks a lot for the inputs, guys. They are really helpful

[LegendarySandwich]

Anyone trying to claim or imply that morality didn't exist, even in written form, before the Bible was written is seriously ignorant of basic historical facts. Why are you debating this person? It doesn't sound like you're going to really get anywhere with him.

[passionate0829]

Anyone trying to claim or imply that morality didn't exist, even in written form, before the Bible was written is seriously ignorant of basic historical facts. Why are you debating this person? It doesn't sound like you're going to really get anywhere with him.

   You're probably right LS. However, I can't stand ignorance spreading in front of me without doing anything about it. There is not only one person debating me, but also a group of people. There are other members reading our discussion too, so I can't just let those ignorant people preaching their bs.

[LegendarySandwich]

Anyone trying to claim or imply that morality didn't exist, even in written form, before the Bible was written is seriously ignorant of basic historical facts. Why are you debating this person? It doesn't sound like you're going to really get anywhere with him.

 

[Sophus]

More of a legal code than a moral one, but... related?
Hammurabi

Yes, this was my first thought as well. Hammurabi is where the Bible gets the 'Eye for an Eye' law.

[Inevitable Droid]

Aristotelian ethics explained well:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/