Morality, the World, and You - A Longshot at Intelligent Conversation

[big4life]

* How do you determine what is right or wrong? I decide what's right or wrong based on my values. Would I want someone to treat me this way? If not, I don't do it.

* Do you always do the right thing? Nobody always does the right thing, it's called being human and learning from your past mistakes.

* Why? Do you believe that doing the right thing even though nobody cares and nobody is looking will benefit to your life? I am not concearned with it benefiting my life. My only concearn is being happy with the person that I see in the mirror.

* Do you ever do the wrong thing? Yes, we all do things that are wrong. You just hope that you don't keep doing them over and over.

* Why? If you believe it's wrong, but do it anyway, do you therefore consider yourself an immoral person? An "evil" person? We all have the abillity to do evil, hopefully the good out weighs the evil in the end.

 

[Lao Tzu]

This is a shameless link to a post I made a few months back....explaining what I consider to be the most significant problems with moral relativism....

Moral relativism generally leads people to accept absurd conclusions that they wouldn't normally agree to...

For more - check out this thread:

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=110777&highlight=is+morality+relative

1. atheism or agnosticism has to deal with the same argument when arguing with those who believe in god or feel they know 'what' god is. It is just another belief system. And it is

2. child molestation isn't considered a crime everywhere, it was normal in ancient greece and in other cultures. besides, western child rearing tactics are considered to be child abuse by certain cultural standards. I'm sure you could also find 10 or 15 things we do daily in this society that are considered to be 'high crimes' by other cultural standards.

3. i endorse relativism because it makes more sense than absolutism. If absolutism were true, and there were absolute morals, then the world would have been much different as conduct would have changed to meet that.

4. Our morality is considered absolute by us. But every culture thinks that, its called 'ethnocentrism'. That is what relativism (to me) is about. Every culture thinking their morality is 100% right, but every culture disagreeing either in small part or in large part about what is right & what isn't.

you post was about objective truth, not objective morality so i don't see how anyone can argue against that. naturally the earth won't be the center of the universe when people want to believe it is, but i don't see how that relates to 'morality is relative'.

 

[Prometheus]

interesting thread.

there must be something wrong with "moral relativism," if only because so much effort is expended in justifying it.

 

[aurelius]

once again we find the same problem that exists in the religion discussion. Everything is black and white, evil and good, absolutism or relativism.

there is an in between.

 

[bigguns7]

Re: Re: Morality, the World, and You - A Longshot at Intelligent Conversation

What is the difference between a serial killer and a man who hunts for food?

Well, for one, most serial killers don't eat their victims, nor do they need to kill their victims to survive.

There are plenty more differences, but this one should do.

 

[aurelius]

Well, for one, most serial killers don't eat their victims, nor do they need to kill their victims to survive

Hold on. There have been canibal serial killers. Also, there are tons of people that hunt game but don´t need to to survive.

 

[bigguns7]

Hold on. There have been canibal serial killers. Also, there are tons of people that hunt game but don´t need to to survive.

You obviously didn't read the post very well.