My views on objective morality

[robvalue]

It seems to me defining objectivity is arbitrary, if we're talking about anything other than (presumably) objectively existant physical objects.

For example, the way we measure mass is arbitrary. It's just an abstract representation of a quality of something. It just so happens it's extremely useful. The way we measure it has to be objective, or else it is useless for obvious reasons. We could have measured physical objects in any other entirely different way, and maybe that would be useful, maybe not.

However, it has not been established that any arbitrary set of morals is actually useful in the same way. As I said in another thread, I can only see it being of any use to someone who literally has no idea what to do in order to fit in with society such as a psycopath. Whether they'd even listen to you is another matter.

The way I see it, if morality is to be objective, it must be somehow measurable in a way that isn't dependent on the user; or else it's just a set of vague principles which everyone will interpret differently anyway. Measurements are objective, judgements are subjective. But in reality, morality is a judgement, as far as I can see. Those who claim to be following "objective morality" are just following one particular possible set of rules out of infinitely many, and whether or not that's a good idea is up them to demonstrate. The only difference seems to be that they refuse to grow and develop over time, whereas those less dogmatically minded learn and adapt to improve themselves (if they wish to).

It comes down to an equivocation fallacy. The theist wants morality to mean "being a nice person / caring about wellbeing / everyday morality" and "some magical property that has something to do with God". They slide between the two positions, intentionally or otherwise, in order to make their case. If you pick just the first definition, God is irrelevant. If you pick the second, morality is now nothing to do with what we normally consider to be morality. It's about boot licking and mindless obedience; or perhaps justifying what you were going to do anyway with divine righteousness.

So theists pretend it's about both of these things. But if they are the same thing, then "God" is redundant. If they are not the same thing, then God is negatively affecting their treatment of others, any time the two come into conflict.

So there. The sermon is over. You'll find a yellow hat under your seat. For god's sake, don't put it on. They look stupid.