(February 26, 2016 at 7:24 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(February 26, 2016 at 7:04 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: You are literally defining subjective morality and calling it objective.
Hmm I don't see how I'm doing that, as I feel I made myself very clear.
Perhaps coming at Steel's point from a slightly different angle might help clear up the point I think he's getting at (Steel can clarify if I'm misinterpreting him):
You are SAYING that there is an objective moral standard out there... somewhere... but won't (can't?) describe what makes up this objective moral standard aside from stating that some of the things you (and your culture right now) accept as bad are definitely in that standard, and asserting that it comes from your god and that we are moving toward it.
At the same time, you are LIVING a subjective moral standard because you live in a society where rape, theft, adultery, slavery, etc. are all deemed bad/wrong/evil acts and you agree with those societal ethics and not the societal ethics of Culture X over in Area of the World Y who deems rape a suitable punishment for a person committing adultery.
BUT
You don't have an objective metric by which to state that the subjective morals you accept and follow are, in fact, leading us toward this objective moral standard you assert exists and that the subjective morals of Culture X are wrong and moving us away from this standard - indeed you have not demonstrated that such an objective moral standard even exists at all. You are asserting it exists by fiat because of some authority you accept, and by your personal feelings/experiences.
(Did I understand your meaning, Steel?)
Quote:And I never said we outright "don't know" what real right and wrongs are. I listed a few already - rape, theft, adultery, slavery, intentional killing of an innocent person. I 100% believe those are all objectively immoral.
Which is a statement about your personal, subjective opinion about these things. It doesn't matter that you 100% believe them to be objective. Especially because there are people in Area of the World Y who believe radically different moral standards are objective and use the exact same rationale you do for asserting so.
Our beliefs do not determine what is or isn't objectively true or objective moral/immoral.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.