Amoral until proven Guilty

In class we discussed whether or not feeling guilt was necessary to the formation of ethical beliefs and behavior.    Pihlstrom posited that guilt was necessary saying that "without experiencing guilt, or at least being able to do so, we would hardly be capable of employing any ethical concepts or judgments."

I agree with Pihlstrom's claim that guilt is necessary for the formation of ethical concepts and judgments; however, I believe that this is only true if one believes in subjective morality.  The nature of subjective morality being that which arises from the individual, lends itself to the notion that guilt is an integral part of the moral forming process.  Guilt is the feeling which accompanies our moral analysis, it is fundamental and it allows us to assess those feelings for their cause and react accordingly.  Conversely, if morality were truly objective, then it could be demonstrated in such a way that one need only apply certain rational standards to a given situation in order to determine the morality of a particular act.  In this scenario, it seems as though guilt becomes unnecessary, although not unhelpful, in forming ethical judgments.