(August 21, 2013 at 6:43 am)discipulus Wrote:(August 20, 2013 at 10:13 pm)genkaus Wrote: No.
Interesting....
So you are telling me that no matter how health conscious you are, the health nut who exercises seven days a week and the lazy cheese puff eating obese gluttonous man will both die....
The health nut may live longer than the glutton, and the glutton may live longer than the health nut...
But they both die and are not judged for how they have treated their bodies and how they have treated others...
Is this what you are telling me?
(August 20, 2013 at 10:24 pm)Chas Wrote: No, it's memetic evolution. And convergent evolution is evident in the large agreement of basic moral judgements across diverse cultures.
And these convergent ideas may or may not be objective morality.
Interesting....in fact...you agree with Lewis then on your observation regarding the fact that there is large agreement of basic moral judgements across diverse cultures.
You then stop and say this is not cultural relativism.
But common consensus morality is simply might makes right, then you are left with cultural relativism. There is no escape.
For you must indeed be aware...that societies are simply collections of individuals at base. Many societies may agree as a whole that it is better to outlaw abortion and homosexuality.
You may have other societies that disagree, but if the former societies are strong enough to exert their influence over others and render any opposition to their legislation void, then the former societies are in the majority. They can even invade those societies they believe to be acting bad and evil and chastise them and try to persuade them to adopt their morality.
The Allies did this to the Axis powers in WW2.
Cultural relativism is a resulting view of the fact that cultures evolve. It is only one of the ways to view cultural differences, it is not a complete position in and of itself. It puts the emphasis in the wrong place, allowing the kind of interpretation that absolves people of responsibility.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.