RE: morality is subjective and people don't have free will
May 21, 2017 at 1:21 pm
(This post was last modified: May 21, 2017 at 1:33 pm by Zenith.)
(May 19, 2017 at 7:51 pm)Grandizer Wrote: We no longer view slavery as acceptable. That's moral progression. That's how it's always worked, no dictation from God.
Thank goodness we don't wait for dictation from God: Nowhere in the Bible does God say "Stop slavery!"
(May 19, 2017 at 5:43 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(May 19, 2017 at 5:31 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: It's the collective response which determines morality.
Sounds pragmatic but not principled. I guess if everyone comes to think female genital mutilation is okay then it will be. Today slavery is wrong but it was okay in the 17th century. And exactly how does one define the collective response? Is 51% sufficient to determine if something is moral?
A majority of 51% cannot keep a principle firm. An 80% one yes.
There are societies (in middle east?) who accept genital mutilation to be okay, just because it's a "tradition" - that is, a thinking like "our ancestors did that, so why shouldn't we?" Kind of like traditional Christian beliefs. So, whether we like it or not, according to them it's moral while according to us it's not.
As for our "more evolved societies", where we don't give much value to traditions, we accept the possibilities that not everything we think to be "good" is necessarily good - if something proves to do more harm than good, then we can drop it. While in a religious society, that belief is ingrained in the religious teachings, so for them to drop it feels like they have to choose whether to rebel against God or not. Which do you think they would choose?
I don't believe that our morality is perfect. But it is more malleable, which makes it easier to improve.
