Right and wrong

Because I am a strict advocate of questioning reality and our relation to it, I felt a need to throw some words up here about it.Right and Wrong are concepts that humans have struggled with since the beginnings of civilization. As a matter of fact, you can almost define "civilization" as being a group of people with concepts of right and wrong. You can certainly bet that any civilization will view themselves (or ourselves) as having solid, concrete rules in place to ensure that right and wrong are no longer issues.While this is a good approach in theory, it nearly always falls short of its goals. Hence, a smaller group of people is usually assembled within the larger group to debate about topics and matters of right and wrong. After a period of time, what is considered right and wrong is usually adopted by society as a "norm." As people evolve towards a higher level of conscience, different approaches to right and wrong often change the society's point of view as to whether their "norm" is right or wrong. Examples:(a) SlaveryUp until a couple hundred years ago, slavery was widespread throughout the world. It was considered no problem at all to enlist the aid of a slave to do the work of whatever your heart desired. Since society has began questioning morality, slavery has since been outlawed in nearly all modern society.(b) PedophiliaUp until a couple hundred years ago, people would get married at 12 and 13 years of age. A woman was considered adult as soon as she hit her menstrual cycle. A boy was considered adult as soon as he went through puberty. Jewish law states that a boy is an adult at 12-years-old. Muhammed (in Islam) was actually married to a 9-year-old. Within the last couple of hundred years, however, society has viewed the ages and maturity levels of minors quite differently and changed its view on the morality of youthful relationships.(c) Legal AgeIt has been adopted as a norm for our youth today to figure that they are adults when they reach the age of 18. As they reach this age, more opportunities become available for these youths. Smoking, joining the military, getting married, etc. This was another non-existent issue until a couple hundred years ago when people reflected on the maturity of youths, and issued limits on their ages. While it is considered by society to accept a youth into adulthood at age 18, one can drive at age 16, and can't drink alcohol until age 21. Yet, society has accepted 18 as the "legal age."(d) MarriageSociety has made a collective approach to marriage as being between a man and a woman. While it is not quite clear where we derive this idea of marriage from, society is beginning to reflect what is right and wrong about marriage. Homosexuals are being considered to be given as much right as heterosexuals in marrital issues. Society is in the process of questioning the norm of its morality, and changing it. It has already done so with marriage a few times in history, as it used to be common place for one to marry more than one spouse and even at times marry one's sibling. This is considered immoral by today's standards.These are just a few examples. So what is it exactly that determines society's morality? Is it a collective conscience that decides what works and what doesn't?I believe that society is evolving. The more it evolves, the better its values towards preserving humanity and happiness come about. Morality is an evolutionary inevitability, and it is society that sets the rules. Is society always right? No. Will it eventually make amends with right and wrong? Sure. All the examples above support the idea that society is evolving towards a better standard of right and wrong in its morality.Whether it's always going to be right and wrong, we can only guess. But I do suggest that we, as individuals, always keep our minds open when thinking about these issues. Never let society alone tell you what is right and wrong. We each are able to determine morality.