My views on objective morality

[robvalue]

Saying some morality is objective is really just saying some things are blatantly harmful. And it's an admission that morality as a whole, is subjective.

But of course, any individual can still disagree and might think one of those "obvious" things is actually fine. If we must ignore their position, then we're simply cherry picking and looking for trends to fit the conclusion we want. Outcomes can be objectively assessed; how any particular person might judge those outcomes cannot. Trying to define morality to be anything other than a judgement makes it incoherent, in my experience.

Neither does this take into account other factors like intentions. It's a massive oversimplification.

Even in the context of "obvious" things like killing someone, the circumstances and the state of mind of the individual are all mitigating factors. Most people would judge someone less immoral for killing someone who was about to kill them, than killing someone out of the blue. Even killing someone who just killed their loved ones would probably be considered less immoral.

But I always come back to this.... "Objective" morality, even in theory, cannot handle conflicts of interest between different outcomes. I've asked for examples of how it ever could, and I've only ever received the following:

1) Examples that have no conflict and are obvious (shoot someone or don't shoot them).

2) One person decided between the "lesser of two evils" by always making sure their personal accountability to God was intact; and further consequences to others be damned.

Number 2 is at least a way of resolving things, although how "accountability to God" is determined in the first place is wildly subjective; but it makes a mockery of morality, reducing it to following orders and nothing more. That is all "objective morality" could ever be.

I think the person who said the statement in number 2 (I won't say who) was dead serious, and that is incredibly scary to me. They would make actual crucial life decisions which affect other people based on religious dogma. This is one of the dangers of religion, at least among those who take it seriously.